Old friends and newbie vampires
by Kimchihuahuafan
Summary: Darren is an old friend of Damon's, and Darren's girlfriend has been turned, and she doesn't have the best control. So what's a guy to do -but turn his old buddy Damon Salvatore, and his lovely wife Elena. Cannon character pairings, Damon & Elena, and other characters I created - who will be just as much fun - and it belongs to the original creators at Warner Bros.
1. Chapter 1

They'd packed it all up pretty fast. He was used to moving fast on the fly – but she wasn't. Of course – she hadn't really been planning on turning at that point in her life.

She'd knew it might happen someday – that or she'd have to give up Darren. He'd told her it wouldn't matter how old she got – and there were occasional moments when she believed it. He was so damn sincere.

But that was before she'd been killed. Now he was constantly trying to get her to focus on the good aspects of being a vampire.

She'd be sexy hot and young forever. No more killing herself in the gym to stay fit – now it was just to burn off tension.

And oh did she have a lot of tension.

She didn't have to worry about accidently getting knocked up. Not that she had been – after all – the man she's been having sex with technically couldn't knock her up. He was dead after all . . . sort of . . . his heart still beat – she'd heard it, his body functioned almost like any other males – except for the fact that he healed so fast it seemed like magic – and when she'd ran tests on his blood – she was a microbiology major after all, and his blood was like nothing she'd ever seen before.

And last but not least, he needed to drink blood to live. The hamburgers, pasta, steak, chicken – you name it he could eat it – if it was regular food a human would eat, but if he didn't have that human blood – about a pint a day – he got weak – as if he wasn't eating at all – he didn't heal like he did before, and he struggled with the cravings.

She'd seen it happen with Darren once – when his supplier of reject blood from the blood blank had bailed on him, and he'd eventually had to hunt. He'd been on edge for a few days, before he'd given up to go hunting.

She saw it happen with Seth, when Seth turned. He tried to live off of animal blood. There were stories of course, of course, of vampires doing that, and Darren even knew one. But it was so hard – and not everyone could do it.

Poor Seth was just destined to be a crappy vampire, Alexandra thought. He hadn't handled stress well as human – so when he'd turned – all his neurotic, paranoia and whatever else it was that made him a stark raving mess just got worse.

He'd lost it, and fed on people until they died, and stacked up the bodies in plastic bags in a storage closet off his apartment porch. That hadn't worked out well, human bodies bloated and produced gas as they decayed, the bags burst – and the smell . . . it had been awful! Needless to say it attracted attention. So there had been a frantic night of moving them, burying them, covering his tracks.

And he swore to stick to blood bags –but he had no self-control.

A hunter had gotten wind of an out of control vampire – and then it was over for Seth. But not before rumors were running wild in Seattle about an out of control serial killer –and worse yet- it got out that the bodies had been drained of blood totally – so of course someone said vampire.

There were more than enough counter culture types in Seattle to believe in that.

But Darren, and the few others had managed to keep themselves out of the lime light. They did the snatch, eat and erase – with a little bit of blood to heal the wound, or their victim would wake up with a strange bandaged cut –and some vague memory of falling and getting hurt.

One of the local vampires worked at a blood bank – so blood that was safe for them to drink, but may not make it through the screening process, got diverted. Any kind of virus wasn't a problem for a vampire – viruses needed living cells. Vampires were technically dead, with bodies that still functioned – so any virus that got into their cells never got a chance to reproduce. Their own weird immune system managed to wipe it out.

They had their quiet life all mapped out.

Until the day of the accident.

Damn that city truck . . .

"So . . . this guy you know . . . how is it you know him?" Alexandra asked.

She ran her hand through her out of control curly flame red hair, tussling it up unintentionally.

Darren smirked, even when she was a mess, he still thought she was hot. He had it bad, and he knew it. He could watch her for hours and not get bored. The flame red hair, the pale alabaster skin, sapphire blue eye's, full rosy lips . . .

He had to stop thinking about those full rosy lips or he'd be pulling the car over and taking her right then and there. Damnit!

"Damon Salvatore – I ran into him about 70 years ago – about 10 years after I turned – and we were in the big easy - New Orleans," Darren said, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, "He's a good guy – didn't like anyone to know he was really a good guy – but he is."

Alexandra glanced over at him, "So we're looking him up because?"

"Because New York city is one of those cities where you can just about do anything and be anyone – it's a good place to learn to hunt discretely and still mainstream - no one knows us there – except my friend – and he'll be able to clue us into some resources – and he's pretty good at a ton of ways to lure in a meal, and not get caught. He taught me a lot."

She nodded, sipped from the blood bag again. Darren was intent on keeping her very full.

Darren reached over, brushed her flame red hair back from her face, stroked his hand down to her neck. Every nerve ending was instantly on fire, and she leaned into his touch.

"Come over here," he said, gently tugging her arm.

She slid across the bench seat, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"My head's just still spinning . . ."

"I know baby," He said, and he pressed a kiss to her temple. "We'll work through this."

Hours later . . .

Damon Salvatore poured a decent measure of the amber liquid into a highball glass, passed it to Darren. He hadn't seen Darren in ages – but nothing had changed. Nothing much would. As a vampire, he'd be the same age forever. They could do things like color their hair, cut it, but it grew back faster than a humans. They could change the way they dress, add makeup, shave, not shave, but that was it.

So Darren was still the tall, broad shouldered Mexican guy Damon met in the big easy. But he didn't have that look on his face anymore that gave away that he was still getting used to this life.

When he last saw Darren, he was in Cancun, and they'd partied for two weeks like tourists trying to forget their real lives.

"So what's the story my friend," Damon asked, "Never thought I'd see the day you'd fall in love – especially with a mortal, human girl."

Darren openly stared at his friend. "Like you can talk!"

It was still Damon, pale skin, piercing light blue eyes, the dark dark inky black brown hair that was so dark you just weren't 100% sure. Right now he was keeping it cut short, but long enough to look messy and tussled – like he'd just rolled out of bed after a night of sex – which wasn't far off from the truth. He had after all, been married to Elena for 20 years now. But somehow, something was a little softer, not quite so edgy.  
Darren groaned, "Alexandra is unique . . . brilliant, complicated . . . believe me, I didn't go looking for this – but a few years ago . . . it just happened."

"She is hot," Damon smirked, "Not that I ever expected you to hook up with some girl who wasn't."

Darren sank down into the leather sectional sofa, sipped his drink, "I've been doing the college thing – which is where we met – cultural anthropology."

Damon laughed, "You actually took a class? Why?"

"All those drunk co-eds, looking to spread their wings away from mommy and daddy . . . you used to love sorority houses."

Damon smirked, "True."

"Well, there she was . . . and It's gonna sound like one of those hallmark movie things . . . I just couldn't get her out of my head. I figured hey, she's hot, but she's not hung up on it, she's intelligent, of course she got my attention –and I figured the fascination would fade. A night or two, scratch the itch, a little taste or two . . . and it wasn't enough."

Damon laughed, thinking of Elena. It did sneak in sometimes, when you lease expected it.

"Anyway, we got involved, and I came clean – which was . . . rough . . . but we had it worked out. Anyway – she had my blood in her system – and then there was an accident," Darren said, "kind of screwed up our plans."

"What were your plans?" Damon asked, "Not that it matters now. You're way past the point of no return."

"I wasn't going to turn her now - not ," Darren said, "at least, not until she was sure – and she wasn't sure."

Damon sat down on the end of the sofa, "yet you were feeding her your blood . . . come on – you know how this works Darren!"

Darren groaned, "Yeah well . . . sometimes during sex . . . I'd drink a little too much . . . and it's fucking amazing when she drinks from me, and then she got the flu – and she was do damn sick, and I hated seeing her suffer, so I gave her a lot –and it helped – damn near wiped it out – but then this car swerved off the road, took out a whole bust stop full of people . . ."

"The flu," Damon grimaced, "bet she's wishing she'd have just sucked it up and suffered now."  
Darren nodded, "yeah . . . I'd have convinced her to turn – eventually . . . we talked about it. I wasn't going to force her into it. She watched someone we know turn – and not handle it well –and a hunter got him."

Damon sipped his drink, "Fate is a fickle bitch."

"Isn't it?" Darren agreed, "Self control is not her strong point . . . and I need to teach her to hunt someplace where the occasional missing person won't be a huge surprise."

"No self control – even better," Damon muttered, "You do remember what it's like – adjusting to the strong emotions – sensation overload? Right now's she's a walking time bomb."

"I didn't say no self control – she's just not fantastic at it . . . it's made our relationship pretty damn hot actually – until now. Now she's afraid of what she'll do – and I'm not opposed to getting rid of an occasional body – but Alex . . . Alex is afraid of going all ripper – and we saw someone lose it go that way."

"So what are you gonna do?"

"Teach her to hunt – teach her to enjoy the hunt," Darren said, "Make the best of it. She'll adjust – adjusting – making the best of things – that she's good at. So what's the deal with Elena? She looks a lot like-"

"Don't! Don't say that name! We call her the psycho bitch from hell, and that psycho bitch from hell is doing my brother right now – again – They live in Chicago – which is just fine with me – far enough away that they don't just pop in for a visit. Turns out Elena is probably a descendent actually – lots of drama with that story – and we've gotta be really drunk to go down that road. Elena had my blood in her system – totally by accident. A doctor at the local hospital gave it to her – she had some of my blood to save the occasional patient – and Elena had an aneurism, slow bleed – the good doctor gave her a shot, and all was well – until the car she was in got run off the road. She did not want to be a vampire. She was actually my brother's girl at first."

Darren choked on the sip he'd just swallowed, "Stephen's girl? What the hell is it with you two? Did you piss off an entire coven of witches or some vengeful god?"

Damon nodded, "Something like that – as it is, we're doing famously well now. Shitty first year though."

"Stephen still on the bunny diet?"

Damon groaned, "God yes . . . he went on another short bender, under duress . . . another long story."

"Maybe we should go to the liquor store," Darren commented dryly.

"We'll have to stock up," Damon said, "You still drink that shitty tequila?"

"I drink decent tequila now," Darren said defensly, "it wasn't shitty tequila . . . it just wasn't great tequila."

Damon refilled their glasses.

"Any suggestions on where I could take Alex tonight?"

"We have plenty of the bagged stuff here," Damon said, "Help yourself."

Darren smiled, "She needs to learn to hunt- snatch, eat, erase – without leaving a trial of bodies – I've been feeding her bagged blood for days as it is . . . she needs to practice letting go before she goes to far."

"There is this underground club . . ." Damon said.

Darren pulled his mouth from the young man's neck, after taking just a few sips. He moved in behind Alex, she still had her mouth fastened to the other side of his neck, and she drank deeply.

"Ease up there baby," Darren said in her ear, and he stroked her cheek.

She either didn't hear him, or she was too caught up in it.

"Alex, baby, let him go," Darren said, a little more firmly.

She didn't, and Darren knotted his hand in her hair, yanked her back.

She gasped, her eye's distant, still flooded with blood, the capillaries around her eye's still engorged.

"Now compel him," Darren said firmly, "and fix his neck with a little bit of your own blood."

She pierced her own finger, rubbed it over the twin puncture marks in his neck, then did the other one, sighing deeply.

"Go," she said, pushing the man they'd been feeding from, away from her "You're tired – go home, you don't remember that last few hours, and you're going to be really careful going home."

He walked away.

They moved through the crowd again, moving to the middle of the crowd of dancing people. They spotted Damon and Elena dirty dancing with a girl, and to anyone else, it would look like the three of them were making out. What was really happening was that they each bit, drank, let her go. Darren had been showing her how to do that all night.

Watching Damon and Elena was intoxicating. Damon simply oozed sex appeal – and Elena had that kind hearted look to her – so seeing them dressed to go clubbing was like watching the bad boy enjoying corrupting the good girl. Elena was petite, young, and beautiful, and with those big doe eye's, people were drawn to her like a moth to a flame. She easily slipped into the party girl role, so drawing someone in was easy for her.

Darren snaked an arm around Alexandra's waist, pulled her up tight against his body. She could feel him, all of him, her nerves were still hyperaware of everything. She as hard for her, and the way his hands moved on her body told her he wanted her, told her how good it was going to be later on tonight.

"Now watch them," he whispered in her ear, "just watch how they interact with people . . ."

Elena and Damon were dancing away from the girl they just had, but watching closely, Alexandra would see that they watched the people around them. Two girls dancing together were checking out Damon, and Damon exchanged a quick glanced with Elena, and they were moving towards them.

It was Elena that drew them in, moving in close to one of the two girls, while Damon did with the same with the other.

With her heightened senses, Alexandra just barely caught when Elena compelled the girl, and a moment later, it looked like they were getting very affectionate. The girls hand slid around Elena's waist and down her back, and it looked like Elena kissed her neck for several long moment. She pulled her mouth away, and then she and Damon switched places, switched girls.

Alexandra drew in a raggedy breath, almost moaning softly watching them, and she shifted, rubbing her ass up against Darren's hardened cock.

"Its' intense," Darren whispered in her ear, "Watching another vampire feed like that – a little like watching someone having sex . . .  
Alexandra nodded, biting her lip, "I need to get out of here . . ."

"No, you don't," Darren whispered, "You need to feed Baby . . . just the way they are . . ."

"I can't stop," Alexandra snapped, and she turned around, buried her face in Darren's neck, "what I need is you! Why can't we just get out of here – go back to our room . . ."  
She reached in between them, rubbed her hand over the front of his jeans, felt him stiff and hard, "I know you want me right now . . . "

She nipped at his neck, at first with her blunted human teeth, but then he felt something sharp, and she twisted away.

God, it almost undid him, he could lay her down on the floor right here and not care who saw or tried to stop them, but he couldn't – not when she was like this.

Damon had Elena backed into one of the dark corners. It was just too much, the smell of intense sexual desire coming from Elena. He could pick out her scent above all the other scents – he was that in tune to her. But she wasn't the only one aching, and oozing and dripping with need in the club, and while he was totally 100% in love with Elena and didn't want any other woman, he could still smell them, and his body still acknowledged that primal need.

Thank god Elena understood that – and thank god it happened to her too . . . otherwise he'd spend the next thousands years never being able to leave their apartment.

He roughly backed her into the corner, and lifted her up so her legs were wrapped around his hips, and she'd franticly unzipped his jeans, releasing him. He pushed her panties aside and thrust into her . . .

Ectasy . . . intense pleasure . . .it defied words, how good it felt to be inside her. All these years, and her body was still the perfect fit for his.

She yanked his t-shirt up, and bit his nipple as he drove into her, and he it felt good – so damn good . . .

Neither one of them cared if someone saw them – and surely, anyone paying attention could figure out what they were doing . . . but by the time someone could work up the courage – if anyone worked up the courage at all – Damon would have made her come at least once – and in a little while, they'd find someplace else.

Damon pulled her face up to his, and he kissed her, his mouth hard and demanding, and she opened up to him, letting him completely taste her, explore her.

He felt her body tighten around his hardened cock, and a moment late she was gasping, moaning loudly, obviously not caring who saw them either.

A few more thrusts and he let himself go, his own orgasm rocking through him, taking total control for a moment.

Then the letdown came. Their pounding hearts slowed, the momentary insanity faded away. She pulled his shirt back into place, and he let go of her panties as he pulled his flaccid cock from her body. He gently set her down, straightening her skirt, and she looked around, seeing who was watching. She knew he knew, but she never said it. When Damon got aggressive, and had sex with her in some public place, because he couldn't wait to have her – it was the best drug on the planet – and she couldn't get enough of it.

Damon ran his fingers through her hair, then dropped his hand down her back, and they turned back to the room.

"Where'd they go?" Elena asked him, her eye's scanning the room.

"knowing Darren – probably another dark corner," Damon replied, "I'd say let them be – but he does have a newbie vampire on his hands."

They found them a few minutes later – another dark corner. A woman was stumbling away – totally drunk – not just stumbling from losing some blood. Her hair was pulled forward, covering her neck, and there was no visible blood.

Darren had always been a neat drinker, Damon thought to himself.

Alexandra's back as arched, and it was as if she struggling against Darren for a moment, but she stopped, twisted around in his arms fast, and only because they're senses were so acute and keen, could Damon and Elena see she had just licked her lips clean.

Darren pushed her back up against the wall, cupped her face in her hands, leaned over her, calming her down.

"Ah," Damon groaned, "This isn't going well."

Elena's fingers were enmeshed with Damon's, and she nodded, still watching.

"I know what part of the problem is," Elena said.

Damon looked over, eyebrow raised.

"What happens to us – when we hunt and feed like this – we get turned on – she's a baby vampire – and the man she's in love with is right there with her – and she can't separate the desire for the blood from her desire for him – it's too much."

Damon got that look in his face, the one that told her he was weighing it out.

"If Darren and I switch places, things could get ugly, he's possessive – stupid possessive – and you know how baby vampires get."

"I'll take her hunting," Elena said.

"Elena . . ." Damon started to argue, "She's out of control, and-"  
"Or the four of us can . . . but not like this," Elena said, "I think a place like this is too much for her right now – we're mixing sex with the hunt - it's fun – but it's not helping her with control – she needs to learn to take a sip, and let go."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello Everyone!**

**Standard disclaimer – I own nothing, it all belongs to Warner Brothers and the CW network, and probably half a dozen other shell companies I don't know about!**

**The only things that are mine are the two characters I created - Darren and Alexandra, and to be honest, they really belong to themselves. I have no idea how my brain came up with them.**

**I'm just getting back into writing, and I'd love to know what you think, so please review, make comments, tell me you love it or hate it, whatever you want.**

**I'll try to update once a week. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

There were upsides and downsides of being a vampire. One of the upsides was the incredible hearing, and the incredible sense of smell. Sometimes, that incredible hearing and sense of smell was a real pain in the butt too.

Elena knew Damon had left their bed, after thoroughly ravishing her to the point of exhaustion. He'd taken a nap, but he woke up only a short time later, pressed a kiss to her cheek, and told her he was going down stairs to check on his friend.

That had been hours ago.

She could smell the bourbon and the tequila. She'd gotten used to Damon's bourbon – but tequila was a totally different scent all together. This smell wasn't bad, just different.

They talked quietly – or attempted to. The drunker they got, the more they had trouble with volume control. Damon rarely did this, and he was going down memory lane with an old friend – a good friend from the sound of it. She couldn't be mad. He didn't have many real friends from his past. A few now, but his past was mostly dark and dreary.

But she also heard someone else, soft steps that came partway down the hall and just stopped. It had to be Alexandra. Elena would have just gone to sleep but she thought she heard a few quiet sobs, and that she just couldn't ignore.

So she got out of bed, pulled on loose fitting silk pants and a camisole, and padded down the hall.

She found Alexandra curled up in a window seat, dressed in a pair of girly sleeping shorts and a tank top, looking out over the city lights. The moonlight was gone, soon the sun would rise.

"I didn't wake you up, did I?" Alexandra asked, blinking, and wiping at her eye's.

"No," Elena said, and she sat down on the other end of the window seats, "The boys did . . . but they're taking one of those trips down memory lane, and they seem happy . . . so I'm not about to complain."

Alexandra nodded, wiped away the last bit of moisture from just under her eye.

"Want to talk about it?" Elena asked.

Alexandra looked up, "I'm just afraid . . . I'll get over it. I always do."  
Elena nodded. She understood afraid. It had terrified her. She'd tried Stephan's bunny diet – and it sucked, she couldn't handle it. Even knowing now that it was a sire bond issue, she wouldn't go that route ever again, unless she was totally desperate and starving.

She'd been terrified she go all ripper and not be able to control herself. As it was, she learned self-control pretty fast. It looked like Alexandra wasn't learning that self-control quite as fast.

"So you always do huh? What else have you been afraid of that you conquered?"

"Dating a vampire," Alexandra said, glancing over her shoulder, seeing the two men through the slats of the walkway down below, "that was a mind bender – I'm a – I was – a scientist. I thought he was having a psychotic break when he first told me. I seriously thought he'd gone bat shit crazy – and then I realized he wasn't. That's a hard thing to wrap your brain around – dead cells that still function – but not quite the same way . . ."  
Elena nodded, "I was in high school –and you'll hear about it – I was dating his brother –he's a sweet guy really – and when he told me – I didn't know what to think – but it was all right there in living color . . . and Damon – there was a time I just wanted Stephan to kill him and get him out of our hair."

Alexandra smiled a little, "Really? Because the two of you look so . . . perfect – totally in sync."

"We both changed and grew . . . a lot," Elena said, brushing her hair back from her face, and she really looked at Alexandra, "You're a redhead and you have very dark blue eye's . . . how did that happen?"  
"Recessive genes," Alexandra said, "Two blondes with blue eye's in the family tree . . . I got lucky and I know it . . . but this hair and this skin – I can't tan to save my life."

"Especially now," Elena pointed out, smiling.

Alexandra laughed a little, "Yeah . . . that's true . . . check this out."  
Alexandra reached up felt around her scalp just past her temple parted her hair. The roots were white – and they hadn't been there yesterday –or at least not that Elena noticed.

"This is a real pisser – I used to be able to cover this with hair dye once a month – I've had to cover it every three days since the accident."

"What happened to your head?"

"I have a small scar, the hair grows in white – I got smacked with a crow bar when I was a teenager – my mother had this asshole drug dealer boyfriend – too bad he isn't still around, I wouldn't mind losing control on him."  
Elena reached out, gently took Alexandra's hand into hers, "Bad idea – besides, you'd probably be stoned for day's off whatever is in his system."

Alexandra laughed a little, "probably – I was little stoned last night – off what I don't know – liquor, the blood . . . god only knows what else."

They were quiet for a few moments.

"Why aren't you down stairs curled up in your sexy Mexican boyfriends lap?"

"I'm giving him a break," Alexandra said quietly, "the last three weeks – he's spent every last minute taking care of me – making sure I'm not going off the deep end, keeping me fed – and he left behind a life he'd been comfortable in for me."

"We move every few years, no matter what," Elena told her, "Because people will start to notice that we don't age. We make friends we won't keep – unless their one of us – and most of us, most vampires - are not so nice . . . you've chosen a hard life Alex."

"I know," She said, "I wasn't quite ready . . . I was going to do it, I just . . . I thought I'd have more time, finish my degree or something, I don't know . . ."

"I didn't want to turn," Elena told her, "It was an accident – we didn't even know I had Damon's blood in me. So I understand – and it gets easier."

Alexandra nodded, and looked out over the night sky again, "How much longer will it be this intense?"

Elena drew in a deep breath, "It's always going to be this intense Alex – but we get used to it – after a while, it doesn't feel so intense – and to be honest – sometimes I pity people who can't feel and sense everything I can. When you become a vampire – it amplifies what you were before, and soon you'll get some confidence back. I have this friend – insecure – control freak – and she had just gotten to that good place where she was getting comfortable in her own skin – she was damn lucky she got turned when she did. Now she's a super organized control freak – but she's at least nice."

Alexandra laughed a little, "God, if you only knew what I almost did in that club tonight . . ."

Elena laughed a little. She'd seen what Alexandra and Darren had almost done in the bar. She and Damon had done it in the bar – against the wall.

"I'll show you some of the things I do to try and keep myself under control – and a lot of it is practice . . . maybe we should be practicing someplace where you're not also thinking about having sex with Darren."

Alexandra groaned, put her face in her hands, "Dear god . . . you did see – didn't you!"

"I saw what 150 other people were doing – which is why we go there – it's all totally anonymous. Relax, it's ok – I did it in the bar with Damon tonight – it's one of my guilty pleasures – hot out of controls sex right after we've fed together."

Alexandra looked up, "Oh my god . . . what if someone walked up – said something at the wrong moment?"

"We'd compel them to go away," Elena said matter-of-factly, "Or have a snack – then tell them to go away."

Alexandra laughed a little, and looked over the two men below, through the slats of the railing.

"They seem to be really enjoying themselves . . ."

Damon tossed back the last little bit of bourbon in his glass.

"That Mayan priest at the ruins in Mexico, I thought he was going to have a heart attack right there," Damon said, and he reached for the bottle of bourbon.

"You were feeding on some hapless girl right on some alter, of course he damn near had a heart attack – what would you think if you hiked your ass up there – prepared to do whatever a Mayan priest does, and you find a vampire sucking on some girls neck."

Damon shrugged, "the girl was hot – and she wanted to see the view of the whole place in the moonlight – what was I supposed to do? Say no?"

"Not bite her?" Darren suggested.

"I did a lot more than bite her at the top of that pyramid," Damon snorted, "she got to leave with some misty memories of wild sex on top of the pyramids, and a couple of weird bug bites."

"Bug bites? Seriously?" Darren said, "that is so lame!"

"They had bugs the size of small cars there!" Damon said, spacing out his thumb and index finger, "You weren't exactly respecting your ancestors either! I saw you slink off to that place where they play that game and kill the winner's with some girl. Screwed up game if you ask me!"

"I didn't do her on top of a pyramid," Darren said, "where a Mayan priest might find me and curse me – and they aren't my ancestors – I don't think . . . my family came from farther north –mostly. That's a mystery really, we were a really prolific bunch."  
He reached for the bottle of tequila, refilled his glass, and sighed "It was a screwed up way to end a vacation – but it was a damn good vacation."

"What was I gonna do? Some holy man was trying to put a curse on me – and he couldn't be compelled – what was I supposed to do?"

"How much bad luck did you get for drinking a Mayan priest dry," Darren asked him, leaning forward, "Cause that had to bring on some bad karma."

Damon groaned, "You have no idea . . . next four towns I went to – witches – everywhere – I had no idea there were so damn many witches in the world."  
Darren laughed a little, "I roamed through my old village – thinking no one would possibly make me – you know? They all had to be dead – I mean – my whole family drank like fish, we smoked lots of pot, hell we smoked everything we got our hands on, we gambled – and sure enough – my sister is still there – old of course – practicing witch – white magic – I still think she knew who I was. She looked right at me and told me to keep moving. It was La dia de la muerta – so I visited my family's graves – a few generations down they were still tending them. Someone put one up for me – god only knows who's in there."

"Maybe no one," Damon said, "My father put graves in for Stephan and I – our coffins were probably full of rocks."

"Creepy," Darren said, "I haven't been back since."

"I went back to mystic falls," Damon said, and he glanced up at the upper walkway – towards the big bay window Elena and Alexandra were sitting in and talking quietly, "I went back, intending to screw with Stephen – I was still pretty pissed –and I was going to get the psycho bitch out of the tomb – but it all played out differently."

"Stole your brother's girlfriend," Darren said, and sipped his tequila, "I'd say that's different – bet that didn't help your relationship with Stephen."

"No," Damon said, "It did not . . . but he practically handed her to me on a silver platter – and it took me all of a few weeks to fall in love with her . . . god I am such a sap! It all worked out for the best – sort of – he say's happy with psycho bitch – he hasn't had any more ripper benders but that one I told you about, and Elena and I . . . that's just perfect."

"All except for the brother who's a hunter."

"Thankfully he can be selective – now," Damon said, "I had another close friend who was a hunter – sort of – not a supernatural type – but the kind that chooses to be – I kind of slept with and turned his wife."

Darren's eyes widened, "that's a shitty thing to do to a friend."

"It was before we were friends actually," Damon began, "it started when . . ."

Elena had an idea. Alexandra's biggest concern was going too far, and killing someone innocent. In the right mood, she didn't seem to have a problem actually doing the snatch, eat, and erase routine.

So where does one find a population of people that no one minds if they just happen to disappear? The sex offender registry came to mind rather quickly.

She was drinking a cup of coffee – she'd had more than enough blood last night, and even after all this time, she still enjoyed the taste of coffee, and the kick of the caffeine – and she didn't need to add sugar or milk to make it taste good.

She was sitting at her desk, her laptop open and set up, when she heard him come up behind her, took a deep breath of that scent was that so distinctly, intoxicatingly Damon.

Damon gently grasped her shoulders, bent down, pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Sex offenders? Nice Elena – is this the crap you're studying at that college?" Darren asked, his disgust evident in his voice.

She laughed a little, "No . . . I was just thinking – who can Alex hunt – and kill – and no one would really care?"

A smile slowly spread across Damon's face, "I like it. It's dark, devious, right up my alley – but Alex is like you – she still has a conscious."

Elena snorted, "No one cares about sex offenders Damon – especially women. I say we research a few – find one no one will miss at all – someone who deserves it, and let Alex go to town. What better way for her to practice pulling back – and if she doesn't – she's done the world a favor."

Damon grinned, "I love it when you get all devious – who did you have in mind?"

Alexandra sipped on a bag of blood, still wrapped up in Darren's arms. He and Damon had been up all night talking – well, half the night. They had not returned to Damon and Elena's apartment until 2 in the morning, and then Darren and Damon had started drinking their way through a trip down memory lane.

Alexandra had tried to sleep, but she was just too wound up and anxious. All those hypersensitive senses . . . or something like that. It would get easier over time. She knew Darren could sleep well, not be woken up by just the most miniscule sounds, but right now, she hadn't mastered how to filter stuff out yet.

She hoped she learned soon – that, or she'd pass out from sheer exhaustion.

The sun was just rising when they finally decided they were done for the night, and when he'd come up the stairs, he'd pulled her off the window seat gently, suggesting they go to bed and get some rest.

Of course, he hadn't really been interested in sleep – not at first. As soon as the bedroom door was closed, he was pulling her pj's off, touching, kissing, stroking, and for a little while, everything that bothered her disappeared. All she knew was how good is hands felt on her, what his mouth could do, how amazing it felt when he was inside her, and the intense mind blowing orgasm that felt like nothing she'd ever felt before – it made what they had when she was human seem like nothing. One of the benefits of heightened senses.

But when it was over, sleep only tugged at her for a little while. Darren somehow managed to entangle their arms and legs, and promptly pass out.

The smell of coffee had drawn her out of bed, and she'd gotten dressed, had a cup, and Damon handed her blood bag as well, only barely commenting that it helped to stay full. He didn't say much, he shuffled around, and seemed a little quieter than yesterday. Hangover, she thought.

So for lack of anything else to do, and unsure about her surroundings, she went back upstairs, crawled back in bed with Darren, and sipped on the bag, managing to suck it dry pretty quickly.

She tried to sleep, and at most she managed to dose. The little sounds of everyday life drew her attention. Traffic outside, the sounds of some bird someplace scratching for something, soft sounds of someone walking through the house. But she felt safe at least, right now.

Darren glanced at the clock, and tried to ignore the throbbing in his head. One in the afternoon – not nearly enough sleep and he wouldn't get much more – not until he did something about the hangover. How much had he drank? He blinked a few times, watching Alexandra stare at the ceiling, and he brushed her hair back from her face.

"Did you sleep?" he asked her.

"I dosed," she replied, "I'm about ready to start taking horse tranquilizers."

He managed a smile that made his head hurt a little, "I'm about ready to find some for you – at least we know they won't kill you."

She snorted, "another perk."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm reminding myself often of all the good things about this . . . you know, that whole positive attitude thing – I'd have it licked and be just fine with it all – if I didn't want to eat everyone making so damn much noise outside."  
He nodded, "It gets easier – I know you've got to be tired of hearing that by now, but it does."

She nodded, and was quiet for a few minutes, snuggling into his side.

"How long did it take you – to be able to take a deep breath, not be constantly distracted, constantly hungry."

"Months," he said, "and it's more that we get used to it."

She nodded.

"We do," he said, "You know how a coke always sounds good? It's like that – you get to the point where a nice drink of blood always sounds good, but you don't have to have it going down all the time."

She sighed, "This must be what it's like for an alcoholic on the wagon."

The sound of Damon calling up to them drew their attention.

"Wake up you two! I know you're not really sleeping! You better be dressed soon or I'm going see something you don't want me to see! Maybe – maybe not!" Damon's voice floated up from down stairs.

"Damon!" Elena scolded him, "Don't you dare!"

They heard Damon laugh, "Hey – maybe they're into that! Darren can be a real freak when the mood hits."  
Darren sighed, "He'll do it, He'll come right in. He can be such an asshole."

Alexandra shrugged, "I'm not the one who's naked – are guys his thing too?"

"No," Darren said, "Definitely not."

But it was enough to get Darren to get up, and grab a pair of sweatpants from his bag.

They headed down the stairs together.

Damon had a highball glass in his hand, two fingers of bourbon in the glass.

"Hair of the . . .chihuahua?" Damon asked, taunting Darren with the bottle of tequila.

"Asshole," Darren grumbled, "Yes, damnit."

Damon laughed, and poured a highball glass half full, and handed it to Darren, then he picked up the bottle of spiced rum, "Is this it?"

Alexandra nodded, "yeah, but I'm not really hung over."

"It takes the edge off," Darren told her.

"Welcome to alcoholism," Damon commented, and poured another half glass of into another highball glass.

Alexandra took the glass, and sipped. Normally she liked it mixed with a coke or pepsi . . . but this was good, really good. She took another sip.

Elena came in then, coming from one of the rooms down the hall of the first floor.

"Alex, I have an idea . . ."

The target . . . that's how she thought of him, had a long history of violent rapes. The only reason he wasn't in jail right now was because his victim's didn't testify against him. Elena had come up with four potential targets for her – and this was the one she chose. Out of all of them, he seemed to be the worst.

So the four of them set out that afternoon, to hunt.

It only took a few hours to track him down. He came out of a bar, cigarette still in hand, taking a long drag on it. He looked around, an evil sneer on his face, and started down the street.

They followed. They'd dressed for the neighborhood, wearing older well used cloths, nothing to fancy, they didn't want to stand out. They walked arm in arm, as if they were out as a group, going somewhere.

If they were still human, the long walk might have tired Alexandra out. She'd probably be terrified he'd make them, turn on them. But she was walking with three very lethal predators – and she was one herself – now. She just had to learn when to be a predator, and when not to be a predator.

"When is this guy gonna pick a damn alley?" Alexandra asked after a while. She was hungry – again.

The sun was falling. Not that the dimmer light would stop them, or make it harder for them to track him. But she could smell the wafts of different human scents all around her, some of them pleasant, enticing, some of them outright foul.

Then, as if on cue, he stopped, and started talking to a guy who looked just as mean and vicious as he did.

"Time for a little weed I'm thinking, or meth," Darren commented.

They slowed their pace, creeping up on him slowly. He finished his buy, if they hadn't had those acute vampire senses, they probably wouldn't have seen it. But he tucked it into his pocket, and started off again, glancing around again.

He didn't notice them – still.

He finally reached his destination, an old apartment building that looked like it probably had as many rats a residents as it did humans.

"Show time," Elena said, grabbing Alexandra's arm.

Lightning fast, they were right next to him.

He blinked, smiled after a moment looking over the two stunning women in front of him.

"Compell him – into the alley," Elena ordered her.

Alexandra drew a deep breath, focused her attention, looked right into his eye's, "You're going to follow us into the alley, you're not going to scream, you're not going to fight me."

He blinked, got that glazed over look on his face, and when she stepped away, he followed her, right into the alley.

Darren and Damon were already there, standing guard, or standing ready, she wasn't sure.

Elena pushed him back against the brick wall, grimacing. She briefly wondered what he had flowing through his veins right now, because Alex was going to ingest it.

"Go ahead," Elena urged her, "Just sink your teeth in, take a deep gulp, then pull back."  
Alexandra hesitated, put her hand on his shoulder, and she grimaced.

"He's human garbage Alex," Elena said, "Think about what he's done – if you don't do this – he'll be prowling for his next victim."

Alexandra glanced over at Darren, and he nodded.

She took a deep breath, leaned in, and then she could see the pulse in his neck. His heart was pounding fast and hard – and she lost it.

She lunged, bit down, sinking her teeth in, tearing into his flesh, and drank. Hot blood flooded her mouth, she sucked, drank, gulped.

She heard someone calling her name, but she didn't care. All she cared about was getting more –this was what she craved, what she wanted, what she needed.

"Alex! Enough!"

It was Elena who pulled her back. Alexandra gasped, licking her lips, wiped her mouth, "What! Damnit!"

"Stop! Slow down," Elena said, "this is the point, slow down . . ."  
Alexandra drew in a deep breath, the scent, the draw was too much.

She pressed her mouth to the gaping wound again, and drew a few more deep gulps.

"Stop!" Elena snapped, "Alex!"

Alexandra reared back, growling, and she twisted around, as if she was going to attack.

Damon leaped forward, between her and Elena. Darren grabbed her, his arm around her waist. But Alexandra didn't struggle.

"I'm not done!" She snarled.

Elena inclined her head, towards the man, now slumping down, "Then you better finish – he's almost done."

Alexandra didn't need any encouragement. She grabbed him, pressed her mouth to the gaping wound she'd created, and drank, and drank – until there was nothing. She felt his heart racing, felt him spasm, and then she shoved him away roughly, and she licked her lips, wiped her mouth, breathing fast and hard.

Then she started to come down, reality setting in.

There was a dead body lying on the ground in front of her, pale, completely drained.

Darren reached down, pulled long knife from his boot.

"What's that for?" she asked him.

"Dismembered body in the dumpster – a little less suspicious than a dead body with a gaping neck wound."  
She nodded, and stood back, and watched her boyfriend make quick work of the body in front of her, as if he was just cutting up a chicken for dinner.

Elena pulled out some wet wipes from her purse, and a small mirror, and handed them both to Alexandra.

"Clean up," she said gently.

Alexandra took the mirror, her hands shaking, and wiped the rest of the blood off her face. She glanced over her shoulder – Darren and Damon were just tossing the dismembered legs into the dumpster.

"Is this how you normally get rid of people?" she asked.

"Depends where I am," Darren said, "How do you feel?"

She took a deep breath, "actually – I feel . . . exhilarated – I should feel guilty – but . . ."

"There's a reason we picked an asshole like that," Damon said, "Just keep reminding yourself you did the world a favor. A handful of his victims will sleep better when the police discover his body."

Alexandra nodded, drew in a deep breath.

Darren wiped his knife, stuck it back in his boot, and then stepped towards her, reaching. He gently grasped her arms, run his hands up and down, and then cupped her face in his hands, "Seriously Baby . . . you did good."

She closed her eye's, nodding, and then opened them again.

"I want more."

**Well readers? Tell me what you think! I'd love to know! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors note . . . .**

**As always – it all belongs to Warner Brothers, the CW, and probably a few other people I don't know about. The only thing I can lay claim to are the characters Darren and Alexandra.**

**As always, I'd love to know what you think – like it, hate it, think I should flush it . . .**

Elena caught a glimpse of Damon in the mirror. It was an odd angle, the view was spectacular, just the same. Broad shoulders, muscular chest, washboard abs. The sheet draped low on his hips. His inky black hair was a messy, ends sticking up all over, like someone had their hands in it, had been gripping tightly . . .

He had a book in his lap, and he turned the page. She loved watching him when he read, she loved it that he enjoyed reading. He had hundreds of books, real books. A mix of classics, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction – his collection was as eclectic and surprising as he was.

She wondered what he was reading, until he looked up at her.

"Your anthropology teacher is creepy," Damon said, "and a perv. Half the pictures in this book are of topless women."

_Hundreds of books, and he was reading her textbook from her anthropology class?_

Elena laughed, put down her toothbrush, and came out of the bathroom, "Since when do you have a problem with topless women?"

"He's in half the pictures, and he's old enough to be their grandfather," Damon said, "what is he – 80?"

She put her hand on her hip, "What are you – 195?" she asked.

He smirked, "I've been 24 for a very long time, and I look like it."  
With that, he tossed her text took aside, "How many times are you going to go to college?"  
She climbed onto the bed, straddled his lap over the sheets, "As many times as I feel like it – it's the prerogative of being 51 and looking like I'm 21."  
He slid his hands gently around her neck, pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, "smoking hot 21 year old . . ."

She kissed him back, the thrill racing through her, but she forced herself to pull back. If they kept this up, she'd miss class – again.

"What are you doing today?" she asked, reaching for her text book.

"Fulfilling _some_ of my many duties as your husband," he said, "going to the market . . . want anything special?"  
She smiled, slid her fingers into his hair, "what do I have to do to get you to make ravioli with that fresh mozzarella?"

He grasped her hand, brushed his lips across her knuckles, "I live to keep my wife happy."

She smiled, shoved her book in the messenger bag, and paused by the door of their bedroom, "Keep an eye on our houseguests . . . I'm worried about Alex, and Darren."

"The city isn't going to run out of bad guys," Damon said, "Trust me – they're like gremlins – mix them with water, they multiple exponentially."

"It's not the population of bad guys I worry about, she'd drinking herself numb," Elena said.

Damon threw off the sheets, strode across their bedroom naked, taking his time. He did it on purpose, because he knew she was watching. He turned to face her in all his naked glory and ran a hand through his hair, all his movements calculated.

"It's a process," Damon said, "Needless to say, I'm going to the liquor store – want anything special? I know they'll need tequila and rum, I'll need bourbon . . . "  
Elena looked him over, shook her head, and then closed the door behind her.

Damon smirked, and walked into the bathroom and started the shower.

Alexandra showered, washed and dried her hair, pulled it up into a messy knot on the top of her head, and went on a cleaning spree, anything to keep herself busy. Damon and Elena kept their house clean and organized, but she figured she could wipe down counters, dust anything that looked like it needed to be dusted . . .dust some things that didn't need to be dusted . . .

Darren was sitting back, sipping a cup of coffee, sort of reading the newspaper on his tablet, occasionally sipping on a cup of coffee. Mostly he was pretending to read while he watched his girlfriend run out in short shorts.

She had on snug fitting denim shorts, and a snug fitting tank top, hugging her curves just the right way.

They both heard someone coming down the stairs.

"Coffee Damon?" Alexandra called out. She knew it had to be him, Elena had sailed out a little while ago for class.

"Uh yeah, sure," Damon said, fluffing up his damp hair. He watched Alexandra race through the kitchen, pour a cup of coffee, and a minute later it was in his hand. In a flash she was back in the living room, dusting some intricate figurine.

Damon dropped down on the sofa next to his friend, looked from Darren, to Alexandra, then back to Darren.

"You're not really reading," Damon said quietly, smirking.

Darren shook his head, and grinned "Nope! Welcome to my life."

Damon shrugged, sipped the coffee, and frowned, "Uh . . . make coffee much Alex?"

She whipped around, "What? You don't like strong coffee?"

"Seattle," Darren said, looking over at Damon, "Land of espresso on every corner . . . suck it up."  
Damon nodded, and got up, headed for the bar, and picked up the bottle of Kahlua.

Alexandra shook her head, "Wus."

She went back to dusting.

"You know Alex . . . think I did that yesterday – and I think you did too," Damon said, "Feeling a little edgy?"  
As he asked, he reached for the bottle of spiced rum, about to pour a couple fingers into a glass, and then he realized it was a new bottle, which meant she had gone through the previous bottle – already – yesterday.

He shrugged, and filled tumbler half way, and held out the glass.

She took it, sipped half it down, "I'm managing."

Damon glanced over at Darren, who turned off his tablet, "We thought we'd try a nice calm stroll through central part today – no snatch, eat and erase – just walking – enjoying the park."  
"Among the appetizers," Damon commented, smirking, "I could go for a little for mixed grill today."

Darren laughed, Alexandra rolled her eyes.

"I thought you were supposed to be the expert in living as a vampire!" Alexandra said, frowning, and she dropped down into a chair, "Every time I turn around – we're feeding!"

Damon raised an eyebrow, and gestured to himself, "Yep - Vampire."  
Darren sipped the coffee, and schooled his features, it was strong. Alexandra had always liked her coffee strong, but this was really strong.

"I have to go to the market anyhow, my wife wants fresh ravioli," Damon said, "You want the secret to living well as a vampire –keep your vampire wife happy."

With that, he stood up, headed back up the stairs, took another sip of the very strong coffee. It wasn't bad when he cut it with Kahlua.

He got back up to his room, picked up his cell phone, saw a text message from Elena.

_'Watch out for the coffee – be nice – love you'_

Three days later . . .

It was date night. Not that they ever needed any help in the romance department, it was more of an excuse to dress up, go out – enjoy the human aspect of their lives.

And having a normal human aspect of his life – beyond trying not to get caught – was something that even after all his years with her; it was still a novel experience that he relished.

She'd dressed in an off the shoulder dark blue cocktail dress and heals, curled her hair and pinned it up in some fancy ornate arrangement, just a little bit of eye shadow and mascara and lip gloss, she didn't need anything else. Damon wore a suit – black with a dark charcoal, no tie tonight. It had been dinner and dancing at a jazz place that they'd been to a few times – a human dinner. Elena thought it was rude to feed off the musicians they loved to listen to so much.

"I feel guilty that we went out without them," Elena said, "They have a key right? To get back in?"

"Yes," Damon said, "Not that Darren needs a key – He made a living as cat burglar for a while."

Elena frowned, "Seriously? He seems like a nice guy."

Damon laughed, "He is now."

The lock turned, they stepped in and Damon paused to listen . . .nope . . . no one was home.

Not that it would stop him.

He scooped Elena up, and in a flash, they were in their bedroom, on the bed, and he was crawling over her

She laughed, "Did you miss me today?"  
He brushed his lips across hers – gently – even though what he wanted to do was not gentle at all.

"I always miss you when you're gone," He murmured.

He brushed his lips across hers again, and then moved to her cheek, her neck, gentle open mouthed kissed, meant to tease and tantalize.

It worked. She slid her fingers into his hair, arched her body up towards his as his lips blazed a trail down her neck, to her shoulder, along her collar bone.

"Damon . . ." she breathed, soft, husky.

"We've got to get you out of this dress," he said, his own voice had taken on that husky impassioned sound.

He sat back, pulled her up with him.

She smiled at him, enjoying the look of intense passion on his face. It still thrilled her that he wanted her that much, that she could do this to him.

She reached up, started pulling pins from her hair and then she let it go so it fell in a cascade around her shoulders, and she shook her head just a little, shaking it out.

She heard his breath catch – which was why she did it. She smiled smugly, and saw that signatures smirk creep into place across his lips.

He enjoyed these seductive moments as much as she did.

"I could use some help with this zipper," she said, turning around, and presenting her back.

Damon wasn't about to say no. He slowly drew the zipper down, loosening it, and then drew it up and off of her, leaving her clad only in a pair of lacy matching dark blue lacy panties and a bra, garter belt and stockings.

He felt that familiar flush, felt his fangs start to come out, his mouth go dry. Those garters and stockings just might have to stay on . . .

She looked over her shoulder, and raised an eyebrow, "why are you still dressed?"

In a moment, he was off the bed, yanking off his suit, tossing it all over on the chair in the corner, and then he leapt back on the bed, pouncing on her.

Elena went from looking over her shoulder at him, enjoying the view, to finding herself on her back, pinned down. His mouth was on hers, kissing her hungrily. Tease and taunt time was over.

His hands were everywhere – and so were hers. He knew just where to touch her, just how – and she was aching with need, panting, wet, aroused and ready in moments. He'd all but ripped off her bra and panties, and then they were together, connected. He was inside her, she was tightly wrapped around him, and they both moaned, half relief, half desire. Their connection was so much more than intense phenomenal sex, love and romance. There was some raw magic about it.

"I love you," she whispered, her mouth seeking out his.

He kissed her, and started to move, knowing just the right way, just how.

"I'll never get tired of hearing that," he gasped out, "oh god . . . Elena . . ."

She arched her back, met his thrusts, and she bit into his neck, her fangs sinking in deep.

Damon groaned, the intense pleasure almost too much. When she drank from him – it was like he could feel what she as feeling, and what he was feeling all at the same time. It was intense, overwhelming.

For a moment, his mind went back to the first time she'd drank from him, and she hadn't known what that meant, what it was for him.

He thrust harder and faster, on and on, until he felt it, felt her release. It echoed through both of them, taking him right over that edge with her.

Their bodies went slack, and he turned to his side, not breaking the skin to skin contact.

"I love you Elena Salvatore," he murmured into her hair.

Elena enjoyed taking the college classes. She actually had a literature degree, but for the last ten years, anthropology and archeology fascinated her. Their next move, their next new life, was going to have to be somewhere exotic, with ancient ruins, someplace where she could get in on a dig, see little bits of history unearthed by her own hands.

Damon would go anywhere she wanted to go of course. He indulged her with anything and everything she wanted, he loved her that much. She was a lucky woman, and she knew it. She loved him desperately too.

Then, as if on cue – there he was. Snug jeans, a t-shirt and his leather jacket, his hair looking just as messy as it did when she left him in bed this morning. The rush of pleasure at seeing him there was short lived. He didn't have that smug, come hither look on his face. His expression was calm – too calm, and she instinctively knew something was wrong.

"Damn, your husband is just too damn hot for his own good," Lisa, one of her classmates said, "How do you every get any studying done?"  
Elena smiled smugly, "He's an amazing chef too."  
"Does he have a brother?" Lisa asked, "He's too good to be true."

Elena schooled her own features, "He does have a brother, but . . . he's taken – and Damon and Stephan polar opposites. Nice guy though."

They reached Damon, and he brushed a kiss across her cheek, and took her messenger bag off her shoulder, "I thought I'd meet you for lunch."

Elena saw the newspaper held tight in his hand, folded in half.

"Sure," she said, "Uh . . .I'll see you tomorrow Lisa."  
Damon watched the young woman go. Elena watched her walk away too, waiting until she was far enough away.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked.

Damon handed her the news paper.

She unfolded it, scanned the headlines. On the bottom half, left hand side, she saw it. An article about how several sex offenders had been killed, some were just missing. The police suspected a vigilante, but they had no leads.

"Seven? We only hunted down four," She said quietly.

"You and I were only with her for four of them," Damon said, "Some of these she may have done on her own."

Elena groaned, "Some of these who are missing – might just have taken off . . . sex offenders take off all the time."

Damon nodded, "Believe me, I have no problem with her taking out a couple hundred assholes, she can go all serial killer on them as far as I'm concerned, I did it, but 100 years ago it was easier to cover our tracks."

Elena sighed, folding the newspaper, "She was totally in control with the last one."

Damon glanced around again, then looked back at Elena, "In control or not, our newbie needs to crack a bag instead of a throat for a while."

Elena nodded agreeing, "On that note – you mentioned lunch – what did you have in mind?"

He managed a little bit of a sarcastic smile, "Not sex offender, that's for sure."

Darren sat back and just watched her. They'd been apartment hunting, and they found two they liked, and decided on one, and put a deposit down. A few days for it to be cleaned, and they could move in. To celebrate, they'd stopped at the seafood market and the farmers market on the way home, and now Alex was cooking.

She was almost back to the girl he used to know. He knew she'd never be that Alex again. Becoming a vampire changed a person – intensified the traits that made you who you were. What a person did with that, was up to them. He knew she'd be ok, he knew they'd be ok together. They'd have to work at their new life together, but he was fine with that, and so was she.

The other night, when Damon and Elena went out for their date night, Darren and Alexandra had gone out too. They'd walked the park, had hot dogs (instead of the street cart vendor), and just walked and walked for hours. When the sun fell, and parts of the park cleared – they just kept going, not worrying about what part of the park they were in. After all, they didn't have to worry now. Alex was just as damn near invincible as he was. She had the same intense hyper sensitive senses as he had now.

They'd ran – she loved that she could run – and run fast – and it was easy. They'd jumped, leaping high into the air, landing on top of some bridge. She'd been like a kid in an amusement park.

It had been the first day in weeks she'd really laughed, really been care free. They'd stayed out until almost dawn, finally ending up at some diner, having one of those heart attack on a plate breakfasts with strong coffee. That had been like life in Seattle for them – the 4 am breakfast after being out all night on weekends.

"You want some help with any of this?" Darren asked.

She laughed, looked over at him, "Seriously?"

"Ok, so cooking has never been my thing," he said, laughing, "I still gotta offer.

She laughed, picking up the crab, and tossing it into the big stock pot of boiling water. She flinched, hearing the hiss so differently now, and she glanced over at him, "Is that what it always sounds like?"

He nodded, sipping off his water bottle, "Yep – loud little things, aren't they?"

She grabbed the other crab, tossed it into the pot, and grabbing a pair of tongs, pushed them around a little bit, making sure they were both submerged in the boiling water.

From there, she turned to the vegetables.

She was making crab soufflé. It was a delicate process, he'd seen her do it dozen times, and she enjoyed cooking. So he'd pick up whatever she wanted to cook or experiment with, and he'd sit back, and watch her enjoy the whole process.

"I've got kitchen envy," Alexandra said, looking around, "You can totally tell this is the domain of someone who loves to cook."

"If we ever end up in New Orleans – at the same time as Damon and Elena – we'll ask him to make crawdads – amazing."

Alexandra smiled, glancing up from the scallions she was chopping up now, "How come you went so long without visiting?"

Darren frowned, "I don't know actually. Time just feels different when you're a vampire. If you think it can get away from you a human – imagine what it's like when you don't have a time limit on your life."

She scrapped the scallions off the cutting board, into a bowel, washed the board, and reached for the peppers.

She cleaned and sliced down a jalapeño, tossed it towards Darren. He snatched it out of mid-air, popped it into his mouth.

"I thought only dogs did stuff like that," Damon said, walking into the kitchen.

Darren looked over his shoulder, "She has me well trained – want a Jalapeno? There were some fresh ones at the market."

Damon shook his head, "I'll pass . . . so . . . . what are you making Alex? Is that . . . crab . . . that I smell?"  
Alexandra nodded, "Yep – crap soufflé."

Damon nodded a little. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of anyone else cooking in his kitchen.

"Amazing, trust me," Darren said, "Her talents are wasted in a microbiology lab."

Alexandra shook her head, "Cooking is a hobby – I can't do anything like that fresh ravioli you made the other night – that was devine."

"My mother liked to cook," Damon said, watching her wield one of his chef knives.

Elena walked in, taking a deep breath, "Oh . . . is that crab?"

Alexandra nodded, "Crab soufflé – it's good, trust me."

She looked from Elena to Damon, then to Darren for a moment, then back to Elena and Damon.

"What's going on – the two you look edgy," Alexandra said.

Darren turned on the bar stool, "What's going on?"

Damon sighed, "there's an article in paper – 7 scumbags missing . . . I can't believe I'm saying this . . . you gotta lay off eating scumbags for a while Alex."

She frowned, "I've only eaten five."

"We had one the other night," Darren said, "Right before he was going to do some poor drunk girl – but . . . that body is buried – deep – and I didn't take him apart."

Damon handed Darren the paper, and he scanned the article, "Yeah – this fifth one in here, not ours."

Damon nodded, sighing, "Then we have a copy-cat."

"Another vampire in the city maybe?" Darren asked.

Elena shrugged, "Half a dozen at any time usually . . . and none that we socialize with at the moment."  
Damon sighed, "This isn't Stephan's work – he wouldn't be so tidy . . . and he'd call if he was here."

Elena sighed, "Would he?"

Damon rubbed a hand over his face, "Yeah, he's pissed, but not _that_ pissed -and you remember what he was like – this isn't his work."

"I'll stick to bags," Alexandra said, "I mean . . . the whole point was for me to learn some control – and I can go through a crowd of people and not lose it now."

"Even the other night – she was able to stop – we did share," Damon said, looking back and forth between them, "Do we know for sure all the bodies were killed the same way?"

"I can find out," Damon said, "For now – just stick to the bagged stuff."

Alexandra nodded, "Yes, of course, no more scumbags for now. The last thing I want to do is attract the attention of a hunter like Seth did."

Damon took a deep breath, "All right then. What's in this soufflé? – I need to know so I can pick a wine."

Darren sat back smiled, and listened while Alexandra and Damon started talking about white wines. He looked over at Elena. She slid onto the bar stool, and leaned over, picked up a carrot.

"Does she cook like this often?"

Darren nodded, "Couple times a week, I'd be fat if I wasn't a vampire. I can't cook to save my life. I used to live on hamburgers, tacos and beer."

Elena laughed, "I can make chili – if I have a recipe."

Damon looked over, "Not in this kitchen."  
Elena rolled her eyes, "Not that I ever need to cook."

"I don't cook, as a rule," Darren said, "Not my thing. If I cook, people might die of food poisoning."

Elena laughed, "I'm not quite that bad."

"I am. Growing up - human – the only time I saw the inside of a kitchen was when I was sneaking my father's tequila."

"When and where did you actually grow up?" Elena asked.

Darren smiled, "in a little town that doesn't exist anymore – in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. I was turned 80 years ago – I'm 105. My family were all farm laborer's – on other people's farm's. If someone committed a crime, stole something, or kicked someone's ass, the police came looking at us first usually, and usually they were right. The day it happened – I had my weeks' pay, and I picked up a woman in a Cantina, and she compelled me, bit me, turned me. She stuck around for a few days, then took off. We knew we had a vampire in town, we knew one was turning men – but no one ever guessed it was a woman. They town got organized, started hunting. I split town too – because I knew they'd figure out what happened to me fast."

Elena nodded, and leaned in, "You know – I hope you're going to stay in New York for a while – He's really enjoying having an old friend around – a real friend – that's hard to come by in our world."

Darren nodded, "We're going to be here for a while. Alex will want to go back to school, and I think having some tie to her normal, old, regular kind of life will help. We could have stayed in Seattle, but there are two hunter's there – actively looking. We couldn't risk that."

Elena grimaced, "Yeah, hunters . . . I heard you and Damon talking about your friend Seth the other night."

Darren sighed, "Michael never should have turned him. Seth was an emotional out of control wreck when he was human . . . but Michael loved him. When that hunter got him – everyone got nervous. The two other vampires in town would have turned on Alex in a heartbeat."

"Nice friends," Elena commented.

"They weren't friends," Darren said, "Just people I knew – which is why we left. We put down a deposit on an apartment today by the way."

"Really? That's fast . . . you could have stayed longer you know," Elena said, "Trust me, there's plenty of room here."

Darren laughed, "So maybe you enjoy having house guests for an extended visit –but Damon couldn't have changed that much."

Elena smiled, thinking back to the boarding house in Mystic Falls, "His family home in Mystic falls – at one point it was Damon and I, my brother, Stephan, and Katherine, and sometimes one or two other people."  
"Isn't it a boarding house?" Darren asked, "I've never actually seen it."

"Huge," Elena said, "too damn big – because some of those house guests were there way to long."

"Katherine . . . I heard about her . . . that had to be a hell of a shock – Damon told me the other day . . . ."

**As always, I'd love to hear what you think. Love it, hate it, want more, think I should flush it, heck, even suggestions. I'm flexible. Not as flexible as some of our favorite characters, but hey . . . .**


	4. Chapter 4

**Message from the author . . . .**

**Wow, I can't believe I wrote two chapter's in one weekend. I felt like the last one was like pulling teeth, but this one came a lot easier.**

**You all do know this, but I have to stay it. Damon and Elena, and the whole vampire diaries story line belongs to Warner brothers, the CW, and probably half a dozen other people I don't know. I created Darren and Alexandra, Seth, Michael, Richard, Vlad . . . and probably will create a few more. Who knows what will come out of my messed up psyche next?**

**Enjoy this chapter, because you it will be a week and a half before you see something new from me. I have clinical prep paperwork to do, an enormous exam on fluids, electrolytes, acid base function and endocrine disease to study. Yeah, nursing school is just so much fun. It will take me that long to figure out and create a hunter, and all the other potential problems, and I really do need to study. I can only check out of reality for so long. Which is are real shame. I'd rather live in this world than mine sometimes!**

**As always, I look forward to comments, reviews and any suggestions.**

~OFANV~

Elena took Alexandra to her favorite spa. Damon was always sending Elena to the spa. When they'd first come to New York last year, he'd sent her to a different spa every other weekend – booking her day long treatment packages. She'd settled on a spa she liked the most, and now this was where she went every time.

"You seriously do this twice a month?" Alexandra asked her.

They were sitting in pedicure chairs that allowed them to soak their feet in hot swirling water, while the heavily padded chairs had rollers massaged up and down their backs.

Elena smiled, "Every other weekend, unless there's some occasion and I need to re-arrange my appointment . . . like the charity ball in three weeks."

"Darren was always dragging me to those," Alexandra said, "I as having one of those PMS weeks from hell – and he'd booked me an afternoon at this salon – he was trying to be nice – but I flipped out, I was convinced he wanted to pretty me up so he wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen with me."  
Elena had her head back and her eye's closed, but that made her open them and look over, "Oh come on, look in the mirror Alex! You got lucky in the gene pool department."

Alexandra groaned, "I know, I know. PMS is like temporary insanity and there was this girl who was always throwing herself at Darren, and she was petite and super skinny and had these huge boobs, and I was in one of those PMS weeks from hell and had the zits to go with it."

Elena groaned, "It used to bother me – all the women in Damon's past – but I had to get over it. Every time I turned around, he was screwing someone new – this was before he and I were together. Then when we got together, every time I turned around, we'd meet or run into some woman that he had screwed in the past – and screw was the operative word. If she was female, and remotely attractive and showed an ounce of interest he'd just jump right in. He had the same excuse, 'she was cute' – and he had a liberal definition of cute."

Alexandra laughed, "OK, I can see women being interested in him – he is pretty – but how did you reign that in?"  
"I didn't have to," Elena said, laughing at Alexandra's commen, "I knew he was in love with me – long before we were together, and I resisted it – because I was dating his brother, and I couldn't resolve the Damon I originally met with the Damon I was seeing him become – and then it just happened – and I never had to worry about what he was doing when I wasn't around. Would other women try? Yeah, they would, but he turned them down. He flirts, but if they make a move he shuts them down really fast. I can't be mad about the flirting – I do it to –and I think it's just part of our nature."

"Irina," Alexandra began, "That was the blond bimbo's name. She knew all about my history, growing up in foster care, my mother being a drug addict hooker, and she just pushed my buttons. That day, I'm all hormones, zits, and my dress felt too snug when I tried it on that morning, and there she is at the coffee shop, wearing a 'barely there – why even bother' miniskirt and a halter top meant for a woman with much smaller boobs, and she's throwing herself at Darren – again. I just went off."

Elena nodded, "I hate those women. What did you say?"  
"I screamed at both of them, accused him of trying to polish me up because I came from the wrong sides of the track, and when he grabbed my arm to stop me from leaving, I threw my coffee in his face. If I could go back in time, and undo anything – it would be that."

Elena sat up, "You threw your coffee at him – did you know him then, I mean, really know him?"

"Yes," Alexandra said, "I'd just moved in a few weeks before, he'd been begging and arguing and harassing me about moving in for months – and I have this whole thing about being independent. Where I grew up, a woman moved in with a man who had money when she was looking for a sugar daddy, and they usually pimped you out. I was not going to be my mother."

Elena cocked her head to one side, obviously weighing the thought out, "I can see that. So you got over this little problem, right? Because anyone can see he is totally 100% off the market."

A smile spread across Alexandra's face, "Yeah, I'm over that. He flirts, but not like he did before, and it's the friendly flirting thing – the way Damon does – the way we all do I think. I kept my job as a bartender, which drove him crazy, because he wanted me to quit work, just go to school, he was planning out our whole life long before he convinced me to move in."

"I didn't know you were a bartender," Elena said, "He couldn't seriously be worried about you, right?"

"It wasn't me he worried about, not my behavior, but he always worried about me, even now, still, he worries. He has that whole, macho, 'I can take care of my woman' thing. His mother worked hard, so did his sisters, one of them was raped and murdered by a boyfriend, and his dad was kind of a bum, and so his ego is all wrapped up in not being the man who does take care of things."  
"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Elena commented.

"But for me, it took some getting used to. Needless to say, he never booked me a spa day again. I did ask to go once, and he was happy to send me, but after the coffee incident, I think he was afraid. During PMS week, the man must have been praying for divine intervention on a daily basis. I don't miss that."  
Elena only nodded, chewed her lower lip and schooled her features. She didn't miss PMS, the bloating, or getting a period every month. What she did miss was the possibility of having children – even after all these years. But she had everything else, and she knew she was lucky.

She picked up her drink, and sipped, "I don't miss PMS either."

~tvd~

Damon had gone with Darren to look at 'the problem'. Darren had gotten a phone call that morning from the landlord, telling him they were doing a pest treatment in the building to treat a problem.

"Those," Damon said, his eye's narrowing in a frown, "Are termites. You had to pick the one building that's all wood, in city full of bricks and cement – and it had to have termites. Nice job buddy."

They were across the street. They didn't even need to go into the building. With their intensely strong and sensitive vision, they could see the little bugs in their mass exodus out of the building, and smell the gas the pest control company was using, and whatever chemical they were spraying around the base of the building."  
"God only knows what kind of damage they've done too," Darren said, groaning, "Damnit . . . Alex grew up in shitholes with rats, ants and god knows what other kinds of pests – no way in hell I'm gonna have her live in one now."

Damon shook his head, "Time to go compel your deposit back, and stop that pod delivery."

Darren sighed, "Damnit! She really liked this place too. All open concept and all that- she likes big spaces."

"Why are you renting – why don't you buy a place," Damon said, "Elena and I own our homes. We move about every five to eight years, keep them, rent them out, in 60 years when we come around again, we've got a place to move into."

Darren sighed, "Jesus – you stay in one place for 8 years?"

Damon nodded, "that was the longest, but yeah. But we're smart about it. We come into town as young 20 something's, celebrate birthdays, we're discrete, we age up our look as time moves on. You can stay with us as long as you want, find a place you like – think of it as an investment."

Darren nodded, "That investment is going to be built with brick. I hate bugs. We had cockroaches bigger than in the house I grew up in."

Damon laughed, clapped Darren on the back, "Let's go get your deposit back, and then I'll introduce you to my friend at the blood bank."

~OFANV~

It was a whirlwind day. They spent the morning at the spa, the afternoon shopping, and then they got back to Elena and Damon's place and changed into party dresses, and they were out the door again.

It wasn't a night for snatch, eat and erase training, it was just a night to go out and have fun. Balance, that's what Elena had been telling her all day long. That was how you enjoyed this life, did well in it. You appreciated the fun aspects of it, and still did all the regular human stuff you could too.

Alexandra's human life in foster care growing up didn't involve spa days where she'd drop hundreds of dollars in one day, but she'd enjoyed it, and she knew Darren could easily afford it and would enjoy the idea of pampering her. Maybe it was a male vampire thing, pampering their girlfriend or wife . . .

They'd had massages. They'd gotten their hair done. Instead of just coloring the growing white streak over her scar her normal orangey red, Elena talked her into getting something different and fun – now she had a some purple streaks dyed into her hair. Elena had a few candy apple red streaks. There was a story behind that one.

They'd gotten manicures, pedicures, and someone had fixed their makeup.

Then the shopping began.

Elena liked slinky sexy lingerie – or Damon did, or both. Even Alexandra had left the store with a new nightgown – one that she'd never wear out of the bedroom.

They'd also gone party dress shopping.

There had to be some collusion going on too, because Darren reminded her as she left that morning that she did have her credit card, and there was no reason not to use it. She knew he could easily afford it, but this wasn't what human life had been like for her.

Alexandra suspected the whole 'girl's day out' had been preplanned and arranged.

But she enjoyed it.

When they got home, Damon and Darren were in the living room, highball glasses in hand, engrossed in a real estate website.

That was when she found out about their apartment – or rather, the apartment that was no longer theirs.

The nightclub was a converted warehouse. It had a very long bar along one side, a kitchen behind it, tables and booths lined two sides, and the middle was one big huge dance floor, which was full. The last wall was a big stage, where a live band played for a while, then a DJ took over during set breaks.

They danced, and drank, and danced again, and drank again, and it went on and on for hours.

That was one of benefits of being a vampire – the incredible stamina. She could wear heels for hours and her feet never hurt.

The crowed moved and mixed and churned, sometimes people they didn't know (mostly women) kind of joined them on the dance floor, and it was just so much fun.

And she'd 'cracked a bag' or two before they left for the night, so she wasn't hungry. Not that the urge didn't occasionally find its way in, especially when someone was close, but she could control it. She could see the pulse, hear the heartbeat, imagine the taste of the blood, but she could keep her head. That's what she kept telling herself.

~OFANV~

"She's fine," Elena said in Damon's ear, "Really."

Damon had been keeping an eye on Alexandra most of the night. He knew Darren was watching out for her. He knew Darren never took his eyes off her for more than a second, but newbie vampires didn't have the best self-control, Alexandra was holding onto hers by her freshly painted fingernails still.

Damon looked down at Elena, "We're in a room full of people with their blood pumping fast and hard through their veins, and I'm even a little distracted."

"But she wants to be fine," Elena said, "and she wants to make everyone else happy, so she'll keep it in check. Trust me."

Damon sighed, "I hope your right. Darren's so in love with her he has tunnel vision."

"And you didn't with me? Still don't?" She pointed out, smiling up at him as she ran her hands up his chest.

Damon's pulse doubled the moment she touched him and looked up at him like that. Yes, right now, he definitely had tunnel vision, and one other very hard problem.

He grabbed her hand, and they wound through the crowd. He had no idea exactly where he was taking her yet, but there was someplace, somewhere, or he'd be compelling a lot of people to forget what they saw and go away . . . or maybe just go away. He was kinky like that.

They reached the edge of the bar, and he saw someone go into the manager's office, and they followed.

The man turned around quickly, "Hey you can't come in here, this is . . ."

His words trailed off, as Damon's gaze caught him.

"Yes we can, you're going to walk out, and not let anyone in her for 15 minutes, and you're going to forget all about us after."

The man blinked a second later, "I'll watch the door."

He walked out, pulled the door closed behind him.

Elena shoved Damon back against the door a moment later, her mouth hungry on his, yanking his shirt out from his slacks.

Damon kissed her back, just as hard and hungry. It was always like this between then. All fire and lightning and raging out of control passion, like nothing he'd ever experienced before – even with other vampires.

He yanked the zipper from her dress down, pulled the dress up and off, and then he picked her up, and in a flash he swept the desk clear with his arm, and laid her down on it. She had his belt unbuckled, his pants unzipped, and her hand wrapped around him a second later.

"OH God, Elena!" he gasped, as she stroked her hand up, her thumb rubbing over the sensitive tip.

He tugged her bra down, freeing her breasts, and took one of the swollen peaks into his mouth. She moaned and writhed under him, and pushed her hand away, then he yanked her panties right off, ignored the tearing ripping sound of the delicate fabric as it just tore clean away, and thrust himself deep inside her.

She gasped, and he knew immediately she was already close. He pulled his mouth from her breast, and instead kissed her neck, and then sank his razor sharp fangs in, just enough.

She met this thrusts, gasped and cried out with pleasure, and relished in the feel of him inside her, the feel of him slowly drawing blood from her neck.

Her climax came, and he went right over with her a moment later, and only a few moments after that did he pull his mouth and this teeth from her neck, kissing her again, slower, still hungry, and she could taste her own blood in his mouth.

Intense, crazy, amazing, every last time.

Their kiss broke and he looked down at her, the look in his eye's still intense, but definitely satisfied.

"Fifteen minutes? Is that all you're planning on giving me?"

He smirked, "I'm talented, it doesn't take me 15 minutes to satisfy my sexy hot wife – but I'll give you lot longer than 15 minutes when we get home."

She smiled ran her fingers through his hair, "I just bought those panties today you know."

~OFANV~

Darren has his hands on her hips as they danced. Her back was to his chest, and he kept her close, enjoying the feel of her body moving with his. She loved to go dancing, and they always seemed to find that rhythm that was just right.

There as another couple dancing with them, the woman was rubbing all over his back and his ass, and the man with her was watching every last twist, shift, sway and turn of Alex's body, but he kept his hands off, so Darren was ok with it. If he touched her that might change in an instant, but at the moment things were good.

Darren's gaze swept up, and that was when he saw it. If his sense weren't so sharp, he may not have seen it, but the man across the room had definitely just bit into his dance partner's neck. The woman swayed a little, her body weakly swaying in his arms, and only a few short moments later, he let her go. He held her gaze for a moment, and then she wandered meekly away.

Another vampire was in the club.

Darren watched him for a moment longer, committing the details to memory. The vampire left quickly, moving through the crowd a little too fast, and then was out the door.

Alexandra felt the change in Darren's demeanor, and she glanced up and him, and reached back, running her hands down the front of his thighs for moment.

He tightened his grip on her, pulled her tighter to his body, rubbing up against her firm ass, and he knew she could feel him hard and aroused, but that was just fine. This was foreplay for them after all . . .

The music changed, and Alex announced to the couple they were with that she and Darren were going to get a drink, and added that they'd find them again later. Darren knew they probably wouldn't, and that Alex wasn't interested in finding them later, she was just nice that way. She'd gotten bored with them.

They wove their way through the crowd, over towards the bar. Shamelessly, she compelled two people to move away so they could have that a spot right at the end, and not be standing two or three feet away.

He smiled to himself. Yeah, she was adjusting.

The bartender came over, "what can I get you two?"

"Captain for the lady, and for me, Correllejo Anejo," Darren said.

Darren watched as Alexandra did a quick scan down the rows of liquor bottles. Still a bartender . . .

The bartender came back with the two shots, "Are we running a tab for you?"

Darren dropped a 100 dollar bill on the table, "Not yet, we'll take another round in few minutes.

"I don't see your favorite," Alexandra said, turning and picking up her shot.

"They don't have it," Darren said, "I'm surprised they had the Correllejo."  
They raised their shot glasses, touched them together, and then tossed them back.

"Our hosts are nowhere to be seen, which I'm guessing means they've found a coat closet or cleared one of the bathroom's for a quickie," Alexandra said, laughing.

"Manager's office," Darren said, "I just saw them come out."

Alexandra smiled, shaking her head.

The bar tender came back with another two shots.

"We'll need shot of the smoothest bourbon you have, and the darkest rum for our friends too, with our third round," Darren said.

Once again, they clinked their shot glasses, and tossed back their liquor.

A few minutes later, Damon and Elena joined them.

"We have another round coming, for all four of us," Alexandra said, trying hard not to stare at Damon's obviously very recently disarranged hair. It was literally standing up and out everywhere, and pressed flat in one spot.

Darren didn't have any problem calling him out.

"Dude, do something about that hair," Darren said, "Seriously."

Damon smirked, ran his fingers through it, at least evening it up.

"My wife was distracted," Damon replied smugly.

Elena rolled her eyes, "smug jerk."

The shots arrived, and they raised them up, saluting again.

"To old friends," Darren said, clapping Damon on the back.

"And new ones," Elena added.

~OFANV~

The next afternoon . . .

Elena poured out two bags of blood into mugs, and warmed them up in the microwave for just a few seconds.

She had on knit shorts and a t-shirt, her hair was pulled up in a messy knot, and she'd scrubbed off any trace of makeup. She'd think she looked plane and boring, but to Damon, she was stunning. It still amazed him that she chose him and that they'd made it work. He hadn't always had that confidence – determination and desperate hope – yes, he'd always had that. But the old insecurities were gone and had been for years.

He hadn't dressed up this afternoon either. He had on sweats and a t-shirt. The only reason he'd bothered with a t-shirt was because they had house guests.

He kind of liked it, even if it did mean he wasn't bending his wife over the sofa quiet as often.

"So who's cooking tonight – you or Alex?" Elena asked, sitting down next to him.

Damon blinked, smiled, and brushed is lips across Elena's, "Wow . . . never thought I'd ever hear something like that!"

"That Crap soufflé, Damon it was really good!"

"I know," Damon said, "I might actually start taking her with me to the market when I go."

Elena smiled, leaned over into him, and sipped from her mug. Damon's arm went instinctively around her shoulders.

"Oh she'd love that," Elena said, "She's relaxing – the sheer terror of what could happen is fading out thankfully."

"How'd it go yesterday?"

"Easy," Elena said, "aside from the fact that she has a ton of emotional baggage – she's still dragging around with her. It's easy to forget they've been together for only two years."

Damon nodded, thinking back to some of the hang-ups he used to have, some that he still did.

"Some of that never goes away," Damon said, "Darren told me some of it – but I know I got the PG, abbreviated version. They're perfect for each other, like hallmark channel movie perfect. It would get old fast if I didn't know what that was like."

Elena smiled, ran her hand along Damon's thigh, "Speaking of hallmark channel romances – have you talked to Stephen?"

Damon grimaced, "That would be a big NO . . . and there is nothing romantic about that whole mess there. That's all sex, obsession, mind games and lies. I dread the day it falls apart, and it will."

Elena nodded, "Christmas and thanksgiving is only weeks away you know . . ."

Damon groaned, "God . . . you're gonna make me do it, aren't you?"

Elena nodded, "yeah, I am – and I am such a cool wife to my wonderful husband I'll even tolerate his ex girlfried/brothers current girlfriend in my home."

Damon snorted, "You don't get off the hook that easily! You dated both of us."

It was Alexandra's voice that chimed in next as she came down the stairs, "But did she have sex with both of you in a nightclub?"

That earned another smirk from Damon.

"My brother's cool, but he's not that cool."

Alexandra just shook her head, "I'm making coffee, tame coffee for you east coasters."

~OFANV~

Darren groaned. God he was hung over. Not that it was a new experience for him. But last night he'd drank way too much.

It was almost like it used to be. Out for the evening, Alex not afraid of what she might do . . .

He knew she wasn't in the room, and he listened for a moment, heard the chatter, smelled the coffee, and he knew where she was. She really was getting comfortable, relaxing, and he was relieved. He knew she'd get used to it eventually, she'd adjust. They all did, or they didn't . . . and if they didn't, they suffered the fate that Seth suffered, eventually. But it helped that he had a friend around, friends really, to help. This way, it wasn't just him telling her this was normal, that she'd get used to it.

His mind drifted, and he remembered the vampire he'd seen across the room the previous night. Tall, skinny, blond shoulder length shaggy hair – and careless. Humans wouldn't have noticed what Darren had. Humans would have seen two people making out, and then the guy running out of the club a little later – sort of running, that would be what their mind told them it was.

He didn't think the vampire had notice them, and he if did, they weren't doing anything that would tip him off. They'd have just seemed like two more anonymous faces in the crowd. Darren meant to tell Damon about it, but they'd started drinking and dishing history again last night, and it had just slipped Darren's mind. Of course there would be other vampires in the city. New York City was the perfect hunting ground for a vampire. Vegas used to be, but with camera's damn near everywhere there now, one had to be a little more careful. He could just imagine the video's that could show up on you tube . . .

Then his mind wandered to the whole apartment debacle. That had really sucked. Alex had that deer in the headlights look on her face when he'd said something about buying a place, fixing it up. Not that he thought she had doubts about them as couple. It was just a big move, and she didn't do big moves really well.

He had to get her back into school soon too, next quarter if it was possible. Sometimes, when everything else was stressing her out, if she was in that lab, focused on crap not even he could see – like bacteria and viruses and cells and all that crap, that was the stuff would relax her. It was weird, but it worked. She'd resolved herself to a lot of big changes when she spent time growing or killing bacteria, or doing something strange with DNA to a virus. She'd come home excited about something she'd seen or done, practically bouncing off the ceiling, and while he didn't get the appeal, it was important to her, so it was important to him.

The scent of bacon wafted up, and that was it. No more lounging in bed, waiting for his headache to go the hell away. So he grabbed a pair of jeans, pulled them on, and headed down the stairs.

Damon was by himself the living room, looking at the newspaper, a grim look on his face. There it was, 2nd page – the vigilante had struck again, according to the article.

"That's not her work," Darren said, "She hasn't had the chance – and she'd tell us."

Damon nodded, "I know. But someone is doing it – and when I checked with a buddy of mine at the morgue – the bodies are all coming in drained of blood – disarticulated at the joints, with a knife, but the knife has changed apparently. I played dumb, said I was worried it was the work of someone I used to know, but it obviously wasn't. I figured I'd blame it on Stephan's alter ego, the ripper of Monterey."

Darren nodded, "I saw a vampire in the nightclub last night. I saw him have a human drink, and leave. I don't think he saw us."  
"There's a handful of them in the city," Damon said, "I know a few . . .but none of them would copy-cat this, it's not worth it. We were so stupid! I should have insisted on burying those bodies."

"We spread them out!" Darren said, "Jesus – we picked people no one would care about! We used multiple dumpsters for some of the bodies. We did what we could."  
"Damn bleeding hearts, there's always someone wanting to save trash like that," Damon swore, and he sipped the coffee, "Really, not much we can do about it. By now, hunters have noticed. It's in the damn New York Times reporting after all."

Darren sighed, "I've never actually met a supernatural hunter – just the crazy human ones."

"Supernatural ones are even more crazy," Damon said, "almost no self-control, and they can't be compelled. It's a real pain the ass. Elena's younger brother is a hunter – was – he's pretty much not hunting anymore."  
"How did that exactly work out?" Darren asked, "with her being a vampire."

"It was touchy. Mystic falls was just a messed up place for about 10 years," Damon said, shaking his head, "He got his urges under control, and he doesn't try to kill Elena, so we're all good. He's in his late 40's now, and so is his witch wife, so visits can get a little weird, especially since my niece is starting to notice we don't age."

Darren shook his head, "It's all because of that Mayan priest. You caused all that – with one bad meal choice."

Damon groaned, "You are never going to let that go, are you?"

"Never," Darren said grinning.

~OFANV~

Three weeks later . . .

Alexandra came to the event full. Two bags of blood before they left for evening, so she wasn't hungry. She was so easily falling into this new lifestyle that sometimes it scared her. Elena had booked her an appointment at the spa right along with hers. They'd been out shopping again, two more times. Her little small makeup bag was now a tote bag. She had new heesl, new boots, even a new pair of running shoes. She was starting to wonder if her new friend had a little bit of a shopping problem.

Darren wasn't worried about it, but buying her thing's fed his ego – and it was his money she was using, because she wasn't working. He actually seemed to be enjoying it. He and Damon exchanged that look when she and Elena came home from shopping.

A waiter came by, with a tray of champagne glasses, and Elena plucked two off, and handed one to Alexandra. They resumed their stroll around the room and Elena was pointing out people she and Damon knew. Only two other people in the room really knew them – knew what they were, but they were vampires too, and right now Damon and Darren were comparing notes with them about what they'd seen in the paper.

They were leaving their part out of it of course. Vampires could be vindictive.

"Oh her," Elena said quietly, "She's a real peach. She practically starts panting if Damon says two words to her. She acts like she's familiar with the whole Salvatore family line, which is hysterical, since we have to doctor documents almost every damn time we move."

The woman in question reminded Alexandra of a something out of comic strip. Skinny neck, big head, big hair, over-painted face, and stuffed into a dress she shouldn't have been wearing. She was dripping with jewelry too. If it was all real, there had to be a hundred's of thousands of dollars on her this very minute.

Alexandra snorted, "Do you think we'll hear it if the seams start to pop?"

Elena laughed out loud, and then said quietly, "Maybe!"

Alexandra caught glimpse of them in the glass. Yeah, she was falling into this life way too easy.

Elena was wearing a stunning red cocktail dress that came to just above the knee. The bodice and tank straps hugged her curves, the skirt flared out. Her hair was curled and piled up on top of her head, she had on a beautiful tier patterned crystal necklace, earrings to match, and strappy peep toe high heels.

Alexandra's dress was a rich royal blue, strapless, and it came to a few inches above her knee's. Her red hair had been curled up and lightly sprayed, then tousled loose. She had on a smoky quarts pendant necklace, three inch heels that looked spectacular, and should have been killing her, but they didn't.

"Now that's a 'cat that got the cream smile' if I ever saw one," Elena said, "I gotta say, I'm impressed. I was a mess still, when I was this . . . young."  
Alexandra shrugged, "maybe I'm good at faking it. I'm still worried I'll have one of those moments where I just can't control the thirst – but I'm barely having cravings lately if I have a bag or two before we leave your apartment."

"I think you don't give yourself enough credit," Elena said.

Alexandra looked over at her new friend. Right now, Elena her only female friend, and that was weird for her. She'd totally walked away from her life in Seattle, and everyone on it when she and Darren left.

"I don't think I'll ever forget what happened to poor Seth," Alexandra said, "What was it like for you when you first turned?"

Elena laughed a little, "Oh . . . well, this is a fun story. I was sire bonded to Damon – it was his blood that was in my system when I died in that car accident . . .

Elena told gave her a brief history of how things played out that first year. The big differences that had grown up between her and Stephen, and how it ended their relationship, the sire bond, the ill-fated trip to find a cure, flipping her humanity switch for a while, how Damon and Stephen went to crazy lengths to bring her back to her senses. Losing her brother, getting him back, getting Bonnie back from the other side . . .

Alexandra listened with rapt attention, half thinking Elena was stringing along an elaborate tale to tease her, but she was so convincing. She was through her second glass of champagne before she realized it.

~OFANV~

Darren listened mostly, and let Damon do all the talking. He didn't know any of the vampires they were discussing. He knew his friend had a reputation for being dangerous, lethal, sometimes people – their kind of people – called him crazy.

The more Darren listened and heard, the more Darren was glad they were friends, and not enemies. Darren had his own fair share of dangerous, asshole moments and experiences, but it seemed like Damon had spent the last 30 years playing the role of badass and superhero at the same time.

Of course, Damon did fall in love with and steal his brother girls, so he wasn't totally all superhero.

"It could be Vlad," Richard said, "he comes and goes, and that is his style . . . but he usually looks us up when he's in town."  
"It's been like 40 years since I've seen Vlad. I didn't know he was even in the country. Last time I talked to him he was going back to party his way through Moscow and terrorize some old human enemies."

"He did," Leo said, "and drew a lot of attention and had to clear out. A hunter was hot on his trail all through Europe apparently – and now he'll come here – if Vlad is here."

"Great," Damon said, "A hunter a personal vendetta – what did Vlad do, turn his sister?"

"Ate his wife," Richard said, "Foolish really."

They talked a while more, then went their separate ways.

Darren waited until they were far away before he spoke again.

"Eating a hunter's wife definitely trumps eating a Mayan priest," Darren commented.

~OFANV~

**Looking forward to your comments. They seriously get me through the week, especially when you tell me what you like. I had a crap day last week, and then I got an email from someone telling me how much they were enjoying this story, and it just made my day. You know who you are I'm sure . . .**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note . . .**

**Ok, this one is kinda short, but I wanted to get something worth reading posted. I'm trying to keep up with posting at least once a week. **

**As always, I'd love to know what you think, and I'm always open to suggestions . . .**

It had been a shitty day. It started off with Darren wanting to go look at houses, instead of apartments. She was nervous about actually buying a place, but she went along with it. He and Damon had been talking about fixer-upper houses, the long term investment potential, and all that.

They'd spent the day bouncing all over the city. Alexandra figured they'd get something small. It was just the two of them. So two bedrooms, that way when they had guests, the guests would have a place to sleep.

Darren had something else in mind. He was looking at four and five bedroom houses, with yards. In nice neighborhoods.

Places like Alexandra had never lived in before.

She didn't understand why they had to get someplace so big. They'd be here a few years at the most, that was it. He wanted someplace where they could entertain, have guests for a while. They argued. They yelled, they screamed. He'd said they didn't need to live like they were scrambling out of the gutter. She'd said they didn't have to live like uppity snobs. He'd said she had to put some effort into adjusting to their new life together.

That had been it. She'd picked up a shoe, and chucked it at his head. He dodged, it slammed into the wall, leaving a dent.

He'd stormed out, announcing he was going out to cool off. Damon had gone with him, directing him to his favorite bar. Just a few hours to relax, calm down he'd said.

Alexandra had calmed down pretty fast, and was set on spending the afternoon beating herself up over the fight, until Elena talked her into going shopping.

So now Alexandra found herself sorting through racks of lingerie. It didn't help that she didn't know exactly what she was looking for. Obviously, it had to be sexy, but she was in a store for lingerie, so that was covered. She didn't want to just get some bra and panty set that matched – that was so every day and average.

Elena held up a bustier that was black lace and boning, with cups that gave the breast line a lift, but that was it, there technically wasn't a cup, her breasts would just hang over.

Alexandra shook her head.

A few minutes later Elena held up a vinyl body suit with cut outs in strategic places.

"Who wears that?" Alexandra said shaking her head, and frowning, "I mean . . . I'd sweat to death in that!"  
Elena laughed, "I actually have something similar . . ."  
Alexandra closed her eye, and ran a hand through her hair, which only made the out of control curling layers go everywhere. Why had she even bothered trying to tame them?

"Ah . . . of course you do . . . is there an outfit out of this store that you don't have?"  
Elena shrugged, smiling, her tone of voice teasing, "Anything in flannel . . . so if no vinyl – this little head zip up mask is out too?"

Alexandra rolled her eyes, "Yeah, anything involving a hood over my head, and zippers blocking my ability to breathe – totally out."

Elena giggled, and strolled away with the vinyl outfit.

Alexandra stood back, and looked around. There was a cute teddy that was screaming orange tulle with little pumpkins and turkey's all over it – but that was too themed for thanksgiving next week –and the pumpkins turkeys did look wrong, the more she thought about it – and it was an orange she couldn't wear.

Elena came back then with another teddy. Dark emerald green, full but low cups, the shiny material was diaphanous, so he'd be able to see right through it, which did make it interesting. It was trimmed with Satin and had a matching thong panty that sported a tiny bow for the middle of the front panel. There was even a matching emerald green satin robe.

"Now that could work . . ."  
Alexandra took the outfit, and they started back towards the dressing rooms.

"There are some matching satin covered handcuffs," Elena commented, "Just so you know."

Alexandra stopped, and looked at her, and then glanced around, "I don't think they'd hold."

Elena laughed, "Of course they wouldn't . . . it's a visual thing."

"I think I'll pass on the handcuffs," Alexandra said, laughing, "Me buying slinky nighties is already out the norm for us."

Alexandra disappeared into the change room

Elena leaned on the door, "so . . . what did you wear before?"

"I was never home waiting for him," Alexandra said from behind the door, "and I was miss practical – which is how this fight started – me being too practical."  
Elena heard the sounds of cloths rustling around for a few minutes.

"I did dress up as a vampire on Halloween – the first Halloween we know each other, before I knew anything about . . . him . . . I can only imagine what went through his head then."

Elena laughed, "Oh god! That must have been a moment!"  
"I'm sure," Alexandra said, "it was a cute outfit. I did the sexy vampire thing, cheap costume, he liked it obviously, but I would love to know what was going on in his head when he first saw it."

More rustling around, and Alexandra came out fully dressed a moment later.

"OK, this will work," Alexandra said, "I hope . . . he was pretty pissed when he left."

Elena checked her text messages, "they're getting good and drunk at one of Damon's favorite bars. They'll be gone for a while."

Alexandra rolled her eyes, "This might be wasted on tonight, or tomorrow morning."

"You know, there's no reason for us to stay home," Elena announced as they walked towards the register, "I'm thinking a girls night out . . ."

They'd decided to go dancing. They'd gone home, dressed up and glammed it up, and took a cab to a nightclub that Elena said she went to with some of her girlfriends from college every now and then. The cab pulled up, and Elena looped her arm through Alexandra's, and they walked right up to the bouncer, bypassing the line.

"Martin!" Elena called out greeting him, "I'm back! This is my friend Alexandra!"

Martin looked like he was 7 foot tall, and had a steady diet of steroids to go with hard core workouts. But when he saw Elena, he smiled.

"Elena Salvatore!" Martin said, the stoic expression suddenly gone, replaced by a big smile and obvious delight, "Where you been?"

"Mid-terms," Elena shrugged, "You know how it is – is it busy tonight?"  
Martin snorted, "When isn't it busy in there? Alexandra, it's good to meet you. Welcome to the Tropicana."

He stepped to the side, unhooking the velvet rope.

Elena paused as she passed by him, pecked a kiss to his cheek, "Thank you Martin!"

A round of jeers and comments came from the crowd waiting to get in, but Elena ignored them.

Alexandra glanced over her shoulder, "I thought for sure we'd have to wait in that line forever or compel our way in faster."

"Martin is taking classes at the same college I go to," Elena said, "Otherwise, we'd be using compulsion. We could be in that line for an hour."

It had a large dance floor, laser lights moving around in random patterns, a strobe light going off, and a steady stream of dance music pulsing through the speakers.

They headed over to the bar first, compelled two girls into giving up their spot, and started on a round of drinks.

"So is this a regular haunt for you?" Alexandra asked, "You go to college, you go out dancing with the girls, you and Damon go out clubbing, you do the charity circuit sometimes too . . . how do you keep up?"

"So the partying stays mostly to the weekends," Elena said, "And you'll probably discover that along with the heightened senses, it's easier to learn and retain information, which makes going to college fun actually."

"So are you working towards a degree to work in field?"

Elena shook her head, "No . . . not really. I studied literature for about 10 years, then I didn't study anything for a while, and now I'm interested in archeology and anthropology. Our next move, or the one after that, I want to go someplace where I can get work on a dig or a site and get my hands in the dirt."

Alexandra smiled, "You really love it, don't you?"

"It's fascinating! To be able to see how history plays out, how cultures change and develop – and we'll have a unique perspective since we're going to live long enough to see it."

Alexandra nodded, sipped her drink, "I was going to get my microbiology degree – go to work for a biotech in Seattle, go back and work on my masters degree part time, get into drug research."

Elena smiled, "So what is stopping you?"  
"C'mon! We have to move like every five to eight years!" Alexandra said, "I could finish my degree here, but I can't stay Alexandra Kitsen for too long or use my credentials when I don't age."

"So when you change your name, you create set of credentials," Elena said, "you'll have the knowledge to back it up. And while you'll physically stay the same you can do things to age yourself, like change the way you dress, the way you style your hair, the way you do your makeup. It's never really a bad thing for women to look young for her age."

The bar tender came by, and they ordered another round of drinks.

"You're in this life now," Elena said, "The best we can do is enjoy the benefits, make the best of it. Maybe we can give back a little by helping unearth some history, donating to charity, volunteering, or in your case create some medication that will save someone's life. The worst thing we can do is not live or not do something worthwhile with it. Plenty of us do that. You don't have to give up the life you wanted to have. You just have to make some adjustments."

Elena downed her drink, and then nodded towards Alexandra's, "knock it back Alex, its' time to dance!"

It was something about the way he was stalking the woman through the club that got her attention. He wasn't just following someone he knew. He wasn't just following a pretty girl, there was something predatory about it.

Alexandra glanced over at Elena, and realized she'd seen it too.

Without even needing to talk about it, they both started moving through the crowd.

It was as if some other hunting instinct took over. Alexandra's senses were honed in on her target. She saw every move he made, the way he walked, the way he carried himself, she saw his muscles in his neck and back ripple as he flexed his arms and cracked his knuckles. Yeah, she thought, he was looking forward to whatever he was planning.

The fool didn't even look around, to see if anyone was watching him. So he either wasn't afraid of getting caught, he didn't think anyone would do anything, or he was stupid.

The woman he was stalking glanced over her shoulder, saw him, and quickened her pace. She had that haunted look, the one Alexandra had seen on her mother's face god only knew how many times.

The way this woman was dressed she was a more upscale, but she still had the gaunt look to her, that screamed she made a choice between food and something else, and something else was winning out.

Alexandra got closer, moving as fast as she dared and not give away the fact that she wasn't human.

No track marks on the woman, so she wasn't shooting up with something. Smoking it maybe, but who knew?

The man gestured for her to go ahead of him, and they slipped into a back hallway.

Alexandra drew up short, and without looking she knew Elena was right next to her.

They'd listen, see what was playing out even though Alexandra was pretty sure she knew what was happening.

"I got 400," the woman said, "I know it's not enough, but it's still early! I'll keep working!"

He laughed, the sound evil.

"You had plenty of time to make twice that!" he bit out, "Where is it?! I know you're holding out you little bitch!"

The sound of flesh cracking against flesh echoed out. He'd hit her - hard from the sound of it.

Alexandra snapped. She leapt from her hiding place, rounding the corner and slammed the pimp into the wall. The drywall cracked with the impact, dust hung in the air for a moment.

"What the fuck!" He swore, "You're fucking dead bitch! I'll kill you!"

Alexandra laughed, "Too late asshole!"  
She lunged, tearing into his neck. Her fangs tore into him, tearing flesh, muscle and tendon like it was butter. Blood spurted into her mouth and she took a long deep drink and then shoved him away.

He let out a guttural howl, and she slammed him back into the wall again, dazing him. Then she grabbed his chin, caught his gaze.

"Shut up asshole!" she snapped, "You don't get to speak!"

Alexandra's head whipped around, looking for Elena.

Elena was crouching next to the woman the pimp had hit.

"She's ok," Elena said, "We need do something with that you know."

"Want a drink before I'm done? He's not bad - not great, but not bad."

Elena nodded, and stood up. She stood up, and when the pimp started to struggle, she slammed him back against the wall, and pressed her mouth to the gaping wound Alexandra created. She drew in few mouthfuls.

She heard the sound of breaking glass, and whipped around, ready to defend herself.

But it was Alexandra. She had grabbed a beer bottle out of the garbage, busted it against the wall.

"What are you doing with that?"

"Forensic counter-measures," Alexandra said, a smug smile on her face, "Someone followed this piece of garbage and carved him up, imagine that?"

Elena stepped back, and Alexandra shoved the broken beer bottle with its razor sharp edges into the wound and twisted.

The pimp flinched, and then Alexandra snapped his neck and let him crumble right there on the floor.

Then she turned on the young hooker.

She shrank away, clearly in shock, unable to believe what she'd seen.

Alexandra grabbed her chin, "Look right at me."  
She did it, her eyes wide with fear.

"You're done turning tricks. You're going to take the money from his pockets, you're going to leave here, and you're going to go home and pack a bag, and get on the first buss out of town. When you came back here you found him like this. You didn't see anyone come or go and you're done doing drugs, and you're done turning tricks. Now go get all his money, and run."

Alexandra stood up, stepped back, running her tongue around her mouth, licking up the last traces of blood.

She turned, and looked at Elena who was just wiping the last trace of blood off her own lips.

"Time to get out of here, we can't compel a whole club," Elena said.

Alexandra nodded.

They were on the street, several blocks away before either one of them spoke.

"The only thing he had going for him was warm and fresh," Elena commented, "Other than that, he didn't taste that great."

Alexandra rolled her shoulders, "I'm kinda buzzing – what do you think he had in him?"

Elena blinked, sighed, trying to figure out what it was she tasted, what she felt.

"Cocaine," Elena said, "Gotta be cocaine . . . it won't last long."

Alexandra nodded, and glanced over her shoulder, "I should probably feel bad . . . but I just don't. He was going to beat the hell out of that girl, he was turning her out."

"You're not going to get an argument from me," Elena said, "Home?"

They'd gone about six blocks, and Alexandra looked around. They could stay out all night, find another club. Or she could go home, send Darren a text message that she knew would get his attention.

"Home," Alexandra said, "I've got an idea."

They were both drunk. Not on their faces, stupid drunk, but definitely beyond buzzed. Darren had been drinking whiskey all night, because the tequila this bar stocked quite frankly sucked. If they were going to make this place a regular haunt, Darren was going to have to compel the owner to stock his favorite brand.

"Elena was gun shy about EVERYTHING at first," Damon said, "Everything, but I loved her. I still love her, I'll always love her. I think I love her more now though . . . she'd found that nice balance between good girl and predator."

Darren snorted, "Do you realize what you said? How can you have a balance between good girl and predator?"

Damon thought about the very proper, high society glamorous dress she'd warn the night of the charity ball, and then the way she'd literally half dragged him – literally half dragged him into their bedroom that night. She'd had on a leather corset underneath the dress.

"Have you met my wife? Adorable little brunette, big doe eye'?" Damon asked, teasing his friend, "totally rules my entire world . . ."

"Yeah, I've seen her rule your entire world," Darren said, "I was there when she made you call Stephen and Katherine and invite them for the holidays."

Damon nodded, sipped his drink, "Family is important – the family you make . . . eternity is a damn long time."

Darren's phone chimed, and he glanced down at it. A tiny picture flashed across his screen, it was from Alex. As frustrated as he was, he still was going to check it.

He'd expected a text asking him when he was coming home, something like they'd talk about it.

Instead, there was a picture. She was on her knee's her legs spread just enough to be very suggestive, as if the outfit wasn't enough. She dressed in nothing but a green teddy, with bra cups that barely held her, the skirt same to a few inches above a very small, low riding pair of panties, and the whole damn outfit was see through. She also had his bottle of tequila in her hand, her red hair all in disarray as if she'd already been rolling around in bed.

The below the picture said _I'm drunk, horny, and about to start pouring your tequila all over myself. Come home and take care of this_.

"Jesus," Darren said, and he looked at the bartender, "We need to tab out."

Damon looked over, only catching a brief glimpse.

Darren shoved his phone into his pocket, "Seriously? That's my girlfriend!"

Damon's phone chimed a moment later.

Damon looked at it, he grinned that smug smirk, "Elena's taking pictures too – which means they're probably taking pictures of each other. Which means that they are both drunk, home alone, and half naked."

Darren shook his head, "Not cool dude, seriously."

Damon smirked, "Actually, this could be very cool."

Darren rolled his eyes, "Sick bastard."

"Elena would kill me in all honesty," Damon said, "But I still get to dream that one day . . ."

**As always, I'd love to know what you think, if you liked it, hated it, and I love suggestions. Comments get me through hard weeks of studying and clinicals, and spurs on the creative juices.**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello TVD fans! Enjoy this new chapter, the next few weeks or nursing school is going be hell so you probably won't see a new chapter for few weeks, or you may just see little itty bitty chapters.**

**Also, I am starting to use twitter, and will occasionally make comments about things I see out in the world that gives me ideas! I would love to connect with you all on that venue. The handle is " chihuahuamomKim"**

**~OFANV~**

Darren walked in and saw her there, sitting on the bed wearing the greed diaphanous see through teddy, her back to the headboard and, her knee's bent, one leg crossed over the other. The crossed leg bounced just a little as she watched him, and she took a sip of the tequila, then pushed her finger between her own lips, whetting it with the liquor, and then trailed her fingertip across the curves of her breasts.

"See anything you like?" She asked, her voice soft and husky, definitely teasing.

He smiled that feral predatory smile he got on his face when he was really checking out every inch of her and wanted her and anyone else around watching to know it. This was territorial Darren, possessive Darren, now it was the Darren that loved and lusted after her.

"Oh I see a lot I like," he said, slowing walking around to the bed, "Sexy hot redhead wearing something sexy, what's not to like?" He asked.

"Then why are you still standing there?" She asked, "Dressed? Just watching?"

She tipped the bottle just enough to splash some tequila on her fingers, and she uncrossed her legs, and trailed her finger tips up along the inside of her thigh.

Darren felt his already aroused body react even more, felt his fangs start to come out, and he leapt forward and onto the bed. He yanked her body down more towards the center of the bed, and pushed her thighs apart, and ran his tongue along the inside of her thigh, tasting the tequila, the faint taste of her skin, and he could smell the intense arousal that was uniquely Alex, so intoxicating all on its own.

He moved slowly up her thigh, tasting with open mouth kisses, and then he pushed the flimsy string thong aside, and parted her with her tongue.

She gasped. It always got her, made her crazy with pleasure and need when he went down on her. She thrust up to him, and he slid his hands just under her firm ass, holding her still as he tasted her, stroked her tender flesh with his tongue. He sucked just slightly on her clit, then encircled it with his tongue, over and over, then sucked a little more, until she was writhing and moaning underneath him. Even as a human she had not been quiet in bed. She moaned out loud, gasped out his time, she told him how good it felt - and as a vampire that had not changed - if anything she was bolder - because she felt everything so much more intensely.

He knew when she was close, and he kissed and tasted and teased her faster and harder, until her body bucked and spasmed under him.

It was such an intense turn on for him, knowing he could do this to her - that only he had her this way - that no other man had ever been able to satisfy her the way he could.

And he wasn't done.

He reared back, shedding his cloths lightning fast, and then her pulled her up, and flipped her over, so she was on her knees. She knew what he wanted - so she spread her legs wide, knowing he could see her - all of her - open, wet and ready for him.

He grasped his cock and rubbed it between her swollen nether lips, enjoying the slick wet heat.

"Oh baby your so wet for me!" He half moaned, half gasped, and then he slid inside her, thrusting deep, and they both moaned with the intense pleasure.

She felt her body react to the fast hard invasion, and the hint of momentary pain was kind of a thrill, knowing he was possessing, dominating, and the next moment it was all pleasure, feeling her body give to accommodate him, the stretch stimulating her sensitive nerve endings. She struggled to hold on, to not come too fast, enjoying the feel of him inside her, the way his hands slid up her body, the way he tugged the top of the nighty down to cup her breasts. It was too much, and the next wave of intense pleasure and insanity took her over, her climax taking her momentarily into oblivion. She gasped, cried out again, gasping his name, moaning something unintelligible after that.

That was too much for Darren. The feel of her body clenching him, hearing her cry out his name, the way she trembled, and he lost his tightly held control and he came, swearing as he lost control.

"Fuck! Alex! Oh fuck . . ."

He groaned, and they collapsed together onto the bed, both of them spent and exhausted.

It was several long minutes before either one of them spoke.

"Where did this come from?" He asked, tugging the straps and cups back up into place, and then he ran his hand down the curve of her side and hip, "I like walking in and finding you like this."

She laughed, "I took a page out of my new friend's book and went shopping with my boyfriend's money . . . You know . . . New life . . . New things . . ."

"Hhmm..." he said, and kissed her neck.

"I love you," she said, "so much."

"I love you too," he said, "more than you will ever know."

**~OFANV~**

Damon felt the change in Elena and knew what was coming. He heard the feral growl, felt her fangs sink into his neck, and that momentary flash of pain became intense pleasure. She drank deeply, and then pulled back and kissed him. His own body was still throbbing with the intense pleasure, and he could taste the blood in her mouth, his blood.

He flipped them over, pinning her down on the bed, and where before it had been her that was aggressive, enjoying him, setting the pace, now it was him. Each thrust, each stroke was done just right so they could feel every inch of their connected flesh. She moaned under him, gasping out his name, and relentless drove her on and on. Then just as she was so close, he did the same thing to her, bit into her neck, drinking from her.

When they were connected like that, they could feel everything the other one felt. It wasn't just sexually pleasing or exhilarating, it was emotionally intense and intimate too. They reached their climax together, both of them shaken to their very souls with the intensity of the moment.

Moments later, they started to come back from the intense high, their bodies relaxing, sagging into each other, and with their arms and legs entwined Damon rolled them so they were side to side. He felt his own heartbeat returning to normal, felt hers slowing down too, felt their breathing slow, but the emotions were still so intense.

But they always were – that never really ended. Elena Salvatore, his wife, his soulmate . . .

"I love you," he whispered into her hair.

Elena managed a smile, sleep already tugging at heir.

"I love you too," she murmured.

Hours later . . .

There were so many moments with her husband that she cherished, countless moments really. She was lucky and she knew it. Damon wasn't just one of those men who liked to have sex and then it was over. He enjoyed the cuddling, the quiet moments when they were just together as much as she did.

Of course most of those moments lead to incredible sex, but as far as she was concerned, that was just one of the benefits.

They'd gotten up early, or at least early considering how late they'd gone to bed, and Damon had filled the big soaking tub with water. They'd had a leisurely bath, more sex, and now they were just enjoying soaking in the warm water. She was settled between his legs, her back to his chest, and she'd shifted just a little so she could rest her head on his shoulder.

Damon pressed a gentle kiss to her temple.

"You know our guest list for Thanksgiving has grown a little," Damon said, "You know how vampires are – we don't need an invitation."

Elena smiled, "Who else is coming?"

"Well, when we invited Caroline and Klaus be default, we kind of ended up with the two other original siblings, which means Rebekah and Matt – they're coming back from wherever they heck they were in Europe, and Elijah, who is bringing his own girlfriend."

Elena looked up at Damon, "When did that happen?  
Damon shrugged, "Who knows? I'm just glad he's with someone – Katherine did choose Stefan over him."

Elena sighed deeply, "do you ever think back – to how all our friends ended up with who they ended up with?"

Damon snorted, "Some of them I try not to."

She laughed a little, "Hey, Klaus has changed – he's not the evil villain he was."

Damon nodded, "I have no issues with Klaus – I mean – most of us have had our bad guy, evil vampire days. We're predators, some of us really took that to heart for a while. It's Katherine I still don't trust."

"But Stefan loves her," Elena said, "I'm not fond of her either, but Stefan is your bother, my brother in law, and he's still my friend, and I value that, especially since it could have ended up such a mess."

Damon groaned, "I know, I know . . . but she's . . . well she's Katherine! She's toyed with Elijah's feelings, you know what she did with Stefan and I! And then there was her Klaus time, but I don't think Klaus ever actually loved her, come to think of it."  
"I don't think Klaus has loved anyone but Caroline," Elena said, "It just occurred to me, the only man who will be in the room Katherine hasn't screwed will be Darren – unless . . ."

"Never," Damon said, "Darren's never met her – and then there's Matt – she never found a use for him."

"Oh yeah, Matt . . . I still can't believe he turned – I know It's been like 15 years, but still . . ."

Damon shrugged, "Love! What can a guy do?"

"I hope Rebekah loves him!" Elena said, "It's going to be weird, not having Bonnie and Jeremy here, or our niece Emma."

"I wish Bon Bon and Jer were gonna be here too, and you know I love Emma like she was ours . . . but she's just finding out some big things – she's coming into her powers as a witch, she's gotta be shocked as hell to discover that vampires exist . . . especially to find out that her favorite aunt and uncle are vampires . . . putting her in the room with a bunch of us all at once . . . maybe not a good idea."

"I know," Elena said, "I remember how hard it was for Bonnie. She didn't have a lot of help. I hope it will be easier for Emma."

Damon nodded, "Emma will be OK. She has two parents who love her, and she has us – and Caroline."

Elena smiled, "I notice you didn't include Klaus in that mix."

"He's still a dick," Damon said, "At least when I was the big bad evil vampire, doing evil vampire things – I had a purpose in mind that was generally aimed towards a good guy kind of goal."

Elena sighed deeply, but it was a content, happy sounding sigh, "Did your friend down the hall have his evil bad boy vampire days?"

"Oh yeah," Damon said, "Cat burglar for years. One of the local drug dealer cartel guys raped and murdered his youngest sister – he didn't find out about it for a long time. He was going to just kill the guy, but he took out half the cartel in one night."

"And that's bad how?" Elena asked.

"Well, I don't think it was necessarily bad myself," Damon said, "Just opened up some more job opportunities unfortunately. But they seem to manage that on their own."

"What is it you're always telling me – bad is relative?"

Damon laughed, "You could use that concept in a paper for one of your anthropology classes!"

**~OFANV~**

Darren poured two cups of coffee 2/3 full, and the other third was filled with Kahlua. He passed one cup to Alexandra, and then sat down at the breakfast bar to watch her work.

She was setting up to make breakfast. He knew the routine well. She had potatoes out, a handful of other vegetables out. She'd make the bacon first, then start on the country style potatoes and make omelets for everyone.

She'd just laid the bacon out in the pan, and was cutting up the potatoes when he passed her the coffee.

She sipped, paused, and then sipped again.

"I figured you might be as hung-over as I am," he said.

She managed a smile, "Oh yeah . . . Captain Morgan and I bonded a lot last night – and I did something else I should probably tell you about."

Darren sipped his coffee, glancing up over the rim at her. He loved mornings like these, when they could just enjoy each other's company.

"As long as you didn't fuck some other guy, we're fine."

She drew a deep breath, "I fed on a pimp, because he pissed me off, so I killed him."

Darren paused for a moment, and took a deep breath, smiled a little, "Like I said – as long as you don't fuck some other guy, we're fine."

She shook her head, "I love you! You know I'd never cheat on you!"

"I'm don't ever worry about that, or you wanting to do that. I do worry about other men getting grabby though," he said, "But I guess now . . ."

She laughed a little, "Yeah, not a big problem now is it? Now I can just . . . break their hands or arms I guess."

"So, the pimp, what did you do with the body?" Darren asked, sipping his coffee.

"Well, I didn't drain him dry. It was a small drink really, and I got a little creative, busted a beer bottle, shoved it in the mess I made of his neck and messed him up more, so it should look like it was just a normal human murder. No witnesses, so we should be fine."

Darren nodded slowly, "Ok then. So where was Elena when all this was going down?"

"Right there with me," Alexandra said, "I just saw him stalking this woman and I just knew he was going to hurt her. So I stalked him. If he hadn't started beating her up I wouldn't have killed him."

"Babe, I'm not mad you killed a pimp. Believe me, I could care less. I just want to make sure we're covering our tracks. I've killed obscene numbers of assholes that had it coming, and even raised catholic, I do not feel an ounce of guilt over it. As long as we're not drawing attention to the fact that we're vampires, it's all good. If you want to go hunting for sex offenders and pimps and the like on a regular basis – fine. We just need to avoid making pattern with the bodies. I should have known that draining them dry before was a mistake. The police are probably still thinking the bodies were killed, dismembered and then moved – and that's fine."

"But what about hunters," Alexandra said.

"And that's where we screwed up," Darren said, "I didn't think it would make the damn paper. Who cares about sex offenders? I mean – in Seattle, maybe. We were all bleeding heart liberals out there."

Alexandra made a derisive sound, "Speak for yourself!"  
"Point," Darren replied, "but here in New York, I didn't think it would matter."

"Well, this should just look like someone got pissed and killed him," Alexandra said, "I compelled the girl he was beating up to forget, take his money, get clean and leave town. We're covered. No one else saw us, and there weren't any cameras."

Darren shrugged, "Then I hope you had good time. What else did you do last night, by the way? Besides get drunk and eat a pimp?"

"No one else besides people like us have these conversations – you know that right?" She asked, shaking her head

Darren raised his coffee cup in salute, "Perk of being a vampire."

**~OFANV~**

Thanksgiving morning . . .

Damon enjoyed playing at being a gracious host, even if he wouldn't always admit it. At some point or another, he'd been at odds with almost everyone here, but over the years, that had changed – mostly.

He still had nothing good to say for Katherine Pearce.

Stefan had arrived with the psycho bitch from hell on Tuesday night. From the moment she arrived, she'd been looking for opportunities to stir up trouble. She bated Elena with comments about some of sumptuous meals Damon had made for her, back when he and Stephan were still human and they'd all be living under Giuseppe Salvatore's roof. She dropped hints about some of the sexual escapades she had with Damon – and Stefan – back when they were human. Her behavior with Stefan now seemed to be one big show, the "Look I have Stefan wrapped around my finger" show.

Stefan was drinking human blood too, and drinking alcohol heavy – the kind of heavy Damon saw when Stefan was barely holding on to self-control.

Elena was putting on a banner performance herself, not letting Katherine get to her. She laughed everything off, smiled like everything was all right in the world.

There had been one very tense moment early Wednesday morning, Darren was in the kitchen, getting coffee, and Katherine managed to slip away and follow him in. Alexandra was up and off the sofa a second later, and the look on her face was obvious. She didn't want Katherine Pearce anywhere near Darren.

Damon heard Alexandra's raised voice, telling Katherine that everyone else may be ok with her acting like a slut in heat, but she better keep her distance from Darren.

Damon and Stephen flew into the kitchen to get in between the women fast, only to find Darren was already standing between them. Alexandra's teeth here bared, her body tense and ready to lunge, and Katherine was putting on a big show of laughing at her.

It had been a tense day.

Finally, more guests started to arrive, the mood got lighter.

Caroline and Klaus arrived, and they had brought a huge chilled case of shrimp with them for Wednesday evening's meal. Damon had taken the shrimp into the kitchen, kept it on ice until it was time for dinner.

Elena steered Caroline and Alexandra into the sunroom to catch up, go through pictures of the house Darren and Alexandra had decided to buy. Every time Damon looked in on them to see what they were up too, there was a discussion of the personal histories of all their existing and soon to arrive guests going on, or they were back to talking about paint colors, how a room could be decorated, or ideas on the bathroom that was being renovated. Klaus wandered in and out of the sunroom as well, offering an occasional opinion on décor.

Rebekah and Matt arrived, and that drew Elena, Alexandra and Caroline back into the great room. Rebekah and Matt had flown in from Germany, and they arrived bearing a basket of Various wine's and cheeses for everyone to sample that evening.

Elijah and Marry-Ellen arrived shortly after that, with a couple bottles of wine and a basket of fruit.

Damon set out a few bottles of wine, laid out some cheeses, fruit and crackers, and an evening of getting to know the newcomer's to the group began.

Elijah met Marry-Ellen in London. She was a curator at a museum. She'd become a vampire during World War II when Nazi Germany had been bombing everything they could hit in London. One of the ladies she worked with at one of the museums in London had been a vampire and saved her. A few days later, unexploded ordinance went off – and she'd been killed again – and reborn a vampire. She'd been bouncing all over Europe since then, trying to save some of the great works of art from destruction in various wars.

Darren's background had been explained. He'd been turned by a women he picked up in a bar 80 years ago. She'd turned a few people, and they hadn't fared well, she never taught any of them anything about self-control – so when people started hunting vampires, he had to skip town. He'd met Damon when he'd been a vampire for about 10 years, in the city of New Orleans.

Alexandra's turn came up. She related the story about how she'd drank some of Darren's blood because she'd gotten horribly sick with the flu. It had gone on for days, and she was missing way too many days at school – and why not take advantage of a very helpful fix? Then the city truck had careened out of control, and took out a whole city bus stop, and that was it.

From there, the conversation started to swirl around where everyone had been the last year or two, things that were going on in their current chosen towns. The politics of New Orleans and the tenuous truce between witches and vampires. Caroline was enjoying playing the society lady, organizing fundraisers for various charity groups.

Matt and Rebekah were bouncing around all of Europe. A few months here, a few months there, and they were two years into their engagement, tentatively planning on having their wedding in a chapel in Rome.

Elijah and Marry-Ellen were in London for now. Marry-Ellen was working on restoring art that had darkened or damaged over time, from sun or just general abuse. Elijah was currently playing the role of an antiquities expert – who could tell the difference between a fake or a real authentic piece – and he actually could.

Stephen was teaching history at a university in Chicago, and Katherine was happy to be the happy live in girlfriend who pretty much did nothing.

The conversation swirled on and on, comparing little bits of memories they had from their time in Mystic falls, different places they'd all visited over the years.

Overall it was a pleasant life.

Thanksgiving morning, Alexandra was up early, and Darren followed her shortly thereafter. It was an assumed thing at this point, that she'd help Damon with preparing thanksgiving dinner. There was a huge turkey to cook, as well as a ham. Four or five side dishes, pies, fruit and green salads.

She'd started a pot of coffee, poured healthy doses into the cups, and then Damon warned them that it was probably very strong – and that there were various flavored creams, sugar and Kahlua to top it off.

Alexandra's head was spinning, and all her senses were on overload. She'd met other vampires before, but she only knew a little bit about them. A couple of people Darren knew in Seattle. They didn't socialize much, but they kept in touch.

But these people . . . this was the most twisted, self-abusing group of people she'd ever met, and she grew up with a mother who was a junky hooker. The storied she'd heard last amazed her. At some point, almost all of them had been the target of another, they'd tried to kill each other. They'd pulled stunts she couldn't believe they pulled off.

She helped Damon keep the appetizers going, enjoyed more chats with various people who floated in and out of the kitchen and ask her all kinds of questions. After all, they'd all been vampires a lot longer than she had.

Elena had been wondering in and out, making sure the bar stayed stocked, bringing out little trays of appetizing treats Alexandra and Damon created.

"It's a pretty eclectic group, isn't it," Elena commented.

Alexandra nodded, and sipped on her second cup of coffee, "it's hard to reconcile the people some of them were, and the way some of them now."

Elena only smiled, and snuggled into Damon's side, who at the moment, was just tactfully listening.

"It wouldn't be a family if we didn't have a crazy friend, aunt or uncle around," Elena said, "And we really are an eclectic bunch. If I've learned anything in the last 50 years, family is the thing you create with people you like and care about, and even vampires need families."

**I hope you all enjoy a wonderful thanksgiving holiday (those who live where it is observed). As always, I crave reviews and would love suggestions!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Greetings readers! I finally finished this chapter. I've been picking at it and working at it in little bits here and there when I just had to get my head away from nursing school. **

**Right now, this may seem like just filler - but we had to get our characters in the right spot, so to speak. **

**I hope you all enjoy! As always, I want to know what you think. Love it, hate it, just want to see more, review please! They make my day.**

**Also, I'm starting to use twitter - the name is " ChihuahuamomKim". I'd love to get tweets about things you see that might kick in an idea for a story or scene.**

**~OFANV~**

The alarm went off, and they both stirred. Elena slowly sat up, pushing her hair back from her face and looked over at Damon.

He smiled that lazy sexy smile, and for a moment, the way his head lay on the pillow, the way the sheets were half pulled up, it took her back to that first morning – when she'd asked him what that face was. He'd told her he was happy.

She'd never really seen that face before that day. The genuinely happy, content Damon. But he hadn't had much to be happy about.

That had changed over the last 30 years, and she intended to keep it that way. This morning she had set her alarm early to get up and work on a paper that was due Monday. They still had a few house guests, so she wanted to get it out of the way while they were probably still asleep.

Damon reached out, gently grasped her arm, "come back to bed – it's way too early to get up."

She let him pull her back down, smiling as she recognized the way the look on his face changed. It would be a little while before she got to that paper.

Damon moved over her, moving on his hands and knees, his gaze sweeping down her body. She had on one the short slinky nightgowns she tended to favor. The material was thin and slinky, moved easily across her skin, and came off just as easily.

He lifted the hem up to just below her breasts, and pressed his mouth to her skin, pressing gentle wet kisses to her flesh, moving slowly down her body. Her skin always tasted good to him. Sometimes just a hint of salt – especially if they'd worked up a goods sweat the night before. Sometimes it was just that hint of musk and spice that was uniquely Elena.

She sighed softly under him, that soft sound that told him she was enjoying what he was doing. He felt her hands in his hair a moment later, and he kept kissing her, blazing a trail down her stomach, and then further.

He slid down the bed a little, and lifted one leg, hooking her knee over his shoulder. He could smell the faint tang of her arousal, and when he parted her, she was wet and ready for him. He traced his tongue along the moist folds of flesh, reveling in the fact that it was him that turned her on like this. She'd been anticipating his mouth on her, him tasting her. A few more firm strokes with his tongue, and then he parted the folds of moist flesh with his fingers, and concentrated on her clit.

She trembled under him, moaned again as his tongue encircled the tiny bud, and he did it again, then sucked just a little, and then stroked again with his tongue. He knew that got her, every time. Each moan of pleasure spurred him on, he tenderly worked the sensitive flesh, until she was bucking and spasming under him.

He was well aware that he and Elena were not exactly quite when they made love. He was also well aware that with Stephen and Katherine still in the house, by now they knew exactly what he and Elena were doing.

All this time later, he still felt a little better being able to prove Elena was truly his.

He rose up, and grasped his own swollen hard cock and stroked it along her swollen sensitive flesh, enjoying the hot wet slick feel. She moaned again, and he moaned with her, sliding inside her slick sheath.

She gasped, her body flexing and arching, inviting him in, inviting him to push in deeper. She reached up, pulling him down, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Kiss me," she said, her voice soft and husky.

He brought his mouth to hers, lips brushing, tongues stroking. He knew she could taste herself on him, and she kissed him, hungrily, deeply. Her arms went around his neck, and then moved down to his back as the thrust into her, again and again. Her legs had wrapped around his hips, and she held him tight and close.

At some point though, she wanted to take over. He knew it was coming, she loosed her grip with her legs and arms, and turned them, so he was on his back, and she sat up, rocking back, her long hair trailing down.

She rocked forward and back, riding him slowly, focused totally on how he felt inside her. He grasped her hips, urging her on, and then after a few minutes he reached between them, rubbing his thumb over her clit.

That was all it took. She came again, cried out some strangled satisfied sound, and then her pace changed, her focus then on making him come.

She lowered her body down his then, his breasts rubbing against his chest, and she kissed him. Then she pulled her mouth from his, and she sank her teeth into his neck, drinking deeply.

It was so intense! But it always was when she drank from him. He could feel what she felt, and there was that intense pull that went straight to his soul.

It only took a moment, and he came, gasping and groaning, "Ah, Elena . . ."  
Another long sip, and she pulled her mouth from his neck, and she sat up, and gazed down at him, so he could see his blood on her lips. She slowly licked her lips clean, watching him watch her.

He wasn't the only person making sure certain people in the house knew someone belonged to someone else.

~_OFANV_~

They'd come together again in the shower, and then while Elena started on her paper, Damon went downstairs to the kitchen. They did have guests after all.

He found Darren sitting at the breakfast bar, tipping a dollop of Kahlua into his coffee.

"Alex up?" Damon asked, seeing Darren doctor up his coffee.

Darren laughed, "Oh she's up all right – but she didn't make the coffee. Don't worry, it's tame this morning."

Damon poured himself a cup, sighed deeply, contentedly.

"Quite the performance you put on last night - and this morning," Darren commented, sipping his coffee, "I should thank you, because hearing it puts Alex in the mood, but hey, I kiss Alex and she's in the mood, so maybe I won't thank you."

Damon smirked, "Glad we could help."

"While I'm sure your brother and Katherine heard too, I don't think the people that live at the end of the block heard – so maybe you should turn it up a little next time."

Damon shrugged, smirked, "Maybe we will."

Darren shook his head. He knew what was going on, and Damon knew he knew it. Damon was being territorial.

Alexandra strolled into the kitchen, a definite spring in her step, her hair had that freshly tousled look to it. Darren smiled over his coffee watching her. She glanced in his direction, sent him one of those satisfied looks, and then poured herself a cup of coffee.

When she tasted it a moment later the look faltered a little, but then she shrugged, and drank it straight, no cream or sugar.

"What? A spoon doesn't stand up in it so it's not good enough?"

She smiled at him as she slid onto the bar stool next to him, and pressed a kiss to his lips, lingering for just a moment.

"I really can't complain about anything this morning," she said, practically purring, and then she looked over at Damon, "I'd ask how you slept, but I'm fairly sure you didn't take much time to sleep last night."

Damon only smiled that self-satisfied smile, leaning back against the counter, "Get some earplugs."  
She laughed, "I wasn't complaining. I'm kinda twisted that way."

Damon laughed. She wasn't even close to twisted, but he'd let her enjoy the idea at least.

Darren brushed her hair back from her face, pressed a kiss to her temple, and then he looked over at Damon, "is there a plan for today? Anything going on?"

"Nothing," Damon said, "just more bonding with my brother time. You got something in mind?"  
Darren shook his head, "Nothing major. I was thinking about taking Alex out clubbing tonight, but then I wasn't sure. I don't want to put your brother into a bad spot."

As if on cue, Stephan walked in, "Relax, I can handle it. It really isn't a problem anymore."

Damon managed a tight smile, "Blood bags are a little different than a warm body with warm blood coursing through its veins."

Stefan shook his head, poured a bag of blood into a mug, and sipped, and settled his gaze on Alex, "How is our baby vamp handling the blood lust?"

"I handle it," Alexandra said, taking a deep breath, "I struggle sometimes, but I'm handling it."

Stefan sipped from the mug, and laughed, "So… how many people have you accidently killed so far?"

"Jesus Stephen! Let it go!" Damon snapped, "Fine! You're a rock star on human blood! Don't be such an asshole!"

Darren took a deep breath, and put his hand over Alexandra's, "Dude! Back off! We're trying to not fuck things up for you!"

Alexandra gave Darren a small smile, then turned her gaze back to Stephan, "Accidently? No one. I targeted scumbags, so no one really misses them. I wasn't trying to not kill them."

She turned her hand over, slid her fingers into Darren's, "Let's go out for the day, give them some family time."

Darren nodded, gave Stefan a glance that told him he thought he was an asshole, and he let Alexandra lead him out of the kitchen.

"Little touchy," Stefan commented, and went back to sipping his mug of blood.

Damon shook his head, "find a mirror brother."

They were both quiet for a few moments.

"Katherine is sleeping in," Stefan said, "I think she drank a little too much last night."

Damon wanted to say something snide, like did Katherine really know what too much was, but he let it go.

"Elena is working on a paper," Damon said, "Her anthropology professor is a perv. They're using a text book he wrote and half the pictures have women in them with nothing covering their breasts."

Stefan snorted, "Since when do you have a problem with naked pictures?"  
"He's old enough to be their grandfather – and I get that it's a cultural thing, but you have to meet this guy to know what I mean. I'd bet money he's probably always got some young student he's nailing on the side."

Stefan shrugged, "We got one of those at the university I teach at too. It doesn't help that there is always some young student ready to throw herself at you."

Damon shrugged, considering it, and sipped his coffee again, "At least you don't look like you're damn near 200."

Stefan laughed, "Katherine would go on a killing spree. I don't even let the students close the door when they walk into my office. I generally compel them to lose interest in me. It's just easier that way."

"This old perv pays a little too much attention to Elena, but I think he's figured out by now it's a lost cause. That, and I make sure I go to any college events he might be at too."

Stefan laughed, "How did she go from Literature to Anthropology?"  
Damon shrugged, "More than just a pretty face brother. Eventually she got bored talking about Keats."

Stefan tossed back the remaining blood, rinsed the mug, and filled it with coffee. Damon topped his coffee cup off, and they walked into the living room

They both sank down into overstuffed chairs, facing each other. It was quiet for a few moments.

"So how are things going," Damon asked, "Really going?"

Stefan managed to shrug, "Fine – I enjoy teaching, I enjoy the students, most of them. Grading papers sucks. I find I have to be careful about what I teach because sometimes the history books are not all that accurate."

Damon nodded, "No big surprise there. People don't want to hear that we all got stupid, killed each other, decimated families for stupid reasons."

"Yet we do it again and again and again," Stefan said, "200 years and we still haven't learned much."

"Except how to make bigger weapons to kill more people at once," Damon said, "God help us all if they find out vamps really existed."

Stefan nodded, sipped his coffee, "It would have made that fiasco in the middle east pretty damn short . . . so the ripper like murders in New York . . . Is that Alex's work?"

Damon sighed, "Not the way you'd think. The first few – we figured it would be easier for her to practice on someone no one would miss. So we thought hey – no one cares if a serial killer goes missing. We hunted him, Alex and Elena compelled him to follow them into an alley – and we pretty much shoved Alex into the deep end of the pool. Drained him dry – which was the idea. It was Darren and I that took him apart. We figured if we spread him out over the city someone would think it was a victim or their family member getting even. We did that few times and then it made the papers, except that there were a few more bodies than there should have been."

Stefan nodded, "so she's hunting on her own now."

"No," Damon said, "She hasn't had the chance, trust me, Darren kept her on a damn tight leash for weeks. I did some checking, there are some slight differences. Another vampire is playing copycat and he's still doing it."

"Body count is up to 14," Stefan said, "that attracts a lot of attention."

Damon nodded, "I know. Talked with two other Vampires who are in the know, they think it's Vlad – Russian guy. Not really good with self-control."

Stefan shook his head, "Great . . . where'd you meet him?"

"Florida," Damon said, "he's young. Well, sorta young, he's only been a vampire for about 60 years – and he was 19 when he died. From what I hear, he didn't have much of a conscious when he was human either."

"This is the kind of thing that attracts hunters," Stefan said, "Does this guy know where you live?"

Damon shook his head, "funny that you mentioned the hunter part, according to Richard and Leo, Vlad killed and ate a hunter's wife in Russia somewhere. He's been moving through Europe with that hunter hot on his tail for a while. No one is anxious to see him here."

Stefan sipped his coffee, glanced around his brother's home, "Does he know you well? Or where you live?"

"He knows of me, he doesn't know where I live, and I wouldn't say we were ever really friends. Not that we'd be hard to find, but Vlad has no reason to visit. We weren't friends. We tolerated each other at best," Damon said.

They were both quiet for a few moments.

"What if it's not Vlad," Stefan said, "what if . . ."

"It's not her," Damon said, "Trust me, she hasn't been alone hardly at all and the days the attacks occurred – we were with her, several of us were."

"Either way you've got the makings of a ripper," Stefan said, "and rippers attract hunters."

"I know," Damon said, "believe me brother, I know. We're gonna keep a very low profile. I don't know if this hunter is supernatural or human, but either way I'd just as soon we go unnoticed," Damon said, "As for Alex, she'll be fine. She's managing, she wants to have as normal of a life as possible."

~_OFANV_~

Darren sat back and watched her as she got ready. With or without makeup, he thought she was totally hot. But she liked to fix her makeup, so he was cool with that. Sometimes it was all glammed up, other times it was all low key.

Today, she was going in between. Elena had talked her into some kind of airbrush makeup thing – and lately it seemed to be Alexandra's favorite thing. Darren's favorite thing was to just watch her. She played up her eyes, delicately worked on her mascara and then just a hint of lip gloss. She added just a little bit of something to her hair, but left it all out of control curly. That was his favorite way of seeing her hair anyhow.

She pulled on jeans, a scoop neck top and the heavy leather coat he'd bought her last winter. She shoved a pair of gloves in her purse, added earrings and then looked over at him.

"I just don't get what you enjoy about watching me do the whole primping thing, I'm glad you don't get antsy, but I just don't get it."

Darren laughed, and stood up, "I just like watching you enjoy yourself."

He leaned down, brushed his lips across hers, "Where do we want to go?"

"Well, I figured we could browse some big box store, look at tubs and shower stuff and all that. I have a few ideas for our master bathroom."

Darren smiled, stroked his fingers along the side of her face, down her neck, "I'm glad you're looking forward to this now."

"Yeah well, let's just see if you're still thrilled with me getting into this when it's done. Your best bud's girlfriend is turning me into one of those compulsive shopper types – I'm starting a shoe collection and a purse collection."

With that, she picked up the purse she was going to carry today from the small desk in their room, and they headed out. They browsed through a few big box stores, looking at different jetted tubs, listening to the pro's and con's from the salesmen, went into a few specialty shops well. Towards the end of the day, they headed into a Hispanic neighborhood. Alexandra wanted something close to real Mexican food. They found themselves in a little small mom and pop café that Darren had heard about. They sat at a table, ordered some beer, their dinner, and were just sitting back and relaxing, enjoying watching the world around them. The café had a huge take out business, their tables filled up fast. While they were enjoying their meal, two women came in, took the small table next to them. They were both Hispanic, spoke Spanish, and looked very similar. It was easy to eavesdrop on their conversation, not only because of the very sensitive vampire hearing, but both Darren and Alexandra spoke Spanish.

One of the women had recently lost her husband, in some kind of accident. She had young kids at home, she was looking for a second job. She had been going to school at night to be a medical assistant, and was going to drop out because she couldn't afford the tuition now, let alone keep up on the rent if she didn't find a second job. They didn't have much in savings. The other sister was telling her she should move in with her and her husband, finish school. The sister who had lost her husband didn't want to, said her sister didn't have the room and she didn't want to be a burden.

Alexandra sighed, looked over at Darren, and the look on her face said everything. She knew what it was like to be that worried about how to keep a roof over your head, not wanting to be a burden to someone. She'd grown up dirt poor, she'd and her mother had been homeless more than once.

They were just finishing their beer, and it was time to go. Darren brushed a kiss across Alexandra's lips, and then headed up the to the cashier's desk. She knew what he was going to do, even before he did it. He paid for their dinner.

~_OFANV_~

Elena could hear what was going on in her home. She heard Katherine making a lot of noise when she got up, irritable because of her hangover, and she left to go shopping pretty fast. She could here Damon and Stefan in the living room, watching a college football game, debating on the plays, the players and the coaches. They were relaxed, comfortable, and it was a feeling she treasured. She was sorely tempted to go down stairs and join them, but she stayed up in the bedroom and studied a little longer. Damon and Stefan didn't get much time together, and tomorrow Stefan would have to fly home.

When Katherine came back, Elena gave up studying. Brother bonding time was over.

Katherine was dressed in tight fitting skinny jeans, designer high heeled boots, a snug top that was low cut, and her hair was curled up and teased out, her eye makeup all glammed up too.

It occurred to Elena that Katherine probably envied Alexandra's naturally curly hair. That made Elena smile a little.

Katherine had several shopping bags in hand, and was going on and on about how insane the crowds were.

"It is the weekend right after thanksgiving, biggest shopping weekend of the year," Elena commented.

Katherine rolled her eyes, "Still . . ."

Katherine stomped up the stairs, headed towards the bedroom she and Stefan were sharing.

Her boys – and they really were hers as far as she was concerned, were drinking beer, and now Elena wanted one.

"I'm getting myself a beer, either of you need another?"

"Thank you, my lovely wife," Damon said, and then downed the last bit in his bottle, and handed her the empty bottle, "I have no idea what we're doing about dinner – sorry."

Elena shrugged, "sounds like a good night for takeout, or delivery."

She disappeared into the kitchen, pulled out a couple of beers from the fridge, grabbed the delivery menu's from the kitchen drawer and headed back into the living room, and sat down next to her husband.

"How's your new major really going?" Stefan asked her.

"Interesting," Elena said, "Really interesting actually. I love it! Sometime in the next ten or fifteen years I'm going to bully your brother into moving to someplace near an archeology dig."

Stefan nodded, "just a different viewpoint of history really."

"It is!" Elena said, "It's so fascinating!"

Katherine came down the stairs again, "Please don't start talking all academic stuff! There's so much more to live than reliving the past!"

She slid onto Stephan's lap, wriggled around a little, "After all, we do have so much to look forward to _here_, and _now_."

Stefan slid his hand up her back, brushed a kiss across her lips, "We can learn a lot from the past."

Katherine rolled her eyes, "You let me know when that actually works out."

"We do have a unique perspective on history," Stefan pointed out, "We actually get to see it play out."

Katherine sighed indulgently, "I suppose. I don't see your houseguests Elena. What happened?"

"They're out for the day," Damon said, "Couple time or something like that."

Stefan managed a tight smile, but didn't add anything.

"So exactly how long are they going to be living here?" Katherine asked, "They did just buy a house, didn't they?"  
"Well, it needs to be painted," Elena said, "Alex and I will do most of that, some of my friends from the college will probably pitch in, so that won't take more than a week. But we have finals next week, so painting won't happen until after that."

"Darren and I are tearing out the master bathroom and remodeling it, and the kitchen," Damon added, "Alex likes to cook, so the kitchen definitely needs to be upgraded. We might get them in by Christmas – maybe. Really depends on how fast we can get the fixtures."

"Christmas is a little ambitious," Stefan said, "didn't they arrive here with like a few boxes and a few suitcases and that's it? Furniture takes weeks, trust me. We waited 6 weeks for our living room set."

Katherine smiled, "It was worth it. My coffee tables are all mahogany. They'll last for centuries."  
"Our TV arrived before anything else did," Stefan said, "Well, that and a bed. But everything else . . . takes forever. I don't remember it taking that long before."

Elena patted the sofa she and Damon were sitting on, "This took about a month and a half to get. Damon was able to order the wood for our dining room table, build it and finish it, along with the chairs before the sofa arrived, but it should all hold up reasonably well over time."

"Is Darren handy with tools?" Stefan asked.

"Yeah," Damon said, "I think. He and I did some repair work on a witch's house in New Orleans once. The roof didn't leak when we were done."

"She seems a little timid to be a vampire," Katherine said, "Think it will last?"  
"She's still getting used to it," Damon said, "And yeah – I think it will last. They're serious."

Katherine shrugged, and turned her attention back to Stephan, "I'm hungry and I'm debating on a bag or hunting."

"I know you'd rather hunt," Stephan said, "We'll go out for a bit."

They both got up to get their coats.

Elena looked over at Damon, "Should we go with them?"

Damon sighed, "Damnit! . . . Yes! . . . I know he says he's fine, but . . ."

~_OFANV_~

Darren stood back, watching closely. They'd found themselves in a local bar in the same Hispanic neighborhood, and they were just enjoying the music, relaxing with a drink in hand – just like they used to. On the other side of the bar, there was a man sitting in the middle of the bar, being a jackass. He was rude to the waitresses, generally belligerent, and hitting on half the women in the bar even though he clearly had a wedding ring on.

At one point, he stood up and told the bar tender to save his seat at the bar if he wanted a decent tip, and crudely announced he was going to go drain the lizard.

Alexandra glanced at Darren, "I'll be back in a minute."

Darren nodded, not thrilled with the idea that she was going alone.

He watched her disappear down the back hallway the belligerent drunk had gone down, where the bathrooms were.

It took about 30 seconds, and he couldn't stand it. He turned to the people at the next table.

"Hey – would you watch our table? I want to see what happened to my girlfriend."

He went down the hall, and into the men's room, found it empty. Then he went out the back door.

Alexandra had him pinned against the brick wall with one hand.

"Don't move, don't make a sound," She said, her gaze intent on his.

She bit into him, drank deeply, and just at the point where Darren was about to intervene, she pulled her mouth away suddenly, gasping. She licked her lips, and focused her gaze on his again.

"You're going to forget all this. You came out here to piss, and fell because you drank too much, and now you're going to go in, pay your tab, and leave the bartender a decent tip, and then you're going to go home."

With that she shoved him away, and then turned to look at Darren.

"No body to get rid of this time," she said after the guy disappeared back in, and she swallowed hard, "It's getting easier . . . I guess that's a good thing."

"It is," Darren said, reaching out and offering his hand, "You got this baby."

She took it, and they went back inside and reclaimed their table.

The belligerent drunk was thumbing out some cash from his wallet, and left it on the bar under his glass, and he left.

The waitress came around, they ordered another round, ordered a round of poppers, and just sat back and relaxed again. It felt a lot like their old life in Seattle. The only thing missing was a crowd of friends, but they'd find that here too, and with Elena and Damon, they had already started.

~OFANV~

**I hope you all enjoy! As always, I want to know what you think. Love it, hate it, just want to see more, review please! They make my day.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Greeting TVD fans! As usual (ok, I forget to put this part down half the time), it all belongs to the creators of The Vampire Diaries, the CW, and a ton of other people.**

**As always – would love to know what you're thinking – I got 1 whole comment this last time, yet the page stats tell me over 100 different people actually stopped to read. Starting to wonder if I should even bother finishing this story.**

~~~OFANV~~~

She stirred a little when he got out of bed. He leaned over, brushed the flame red hair from her face, and pressed a kiss to her temple.

"Huh?" she murmured, and lifted her head.

"Go back to sleep Querrida," he said gently.

She blinked a few times, "Why are you up?"

"Time to work," he said, "Seriously – go back to sleep. It's 4 am."

She groaned, "Why do you have to work at 4 am?"

"Because that's when I can get through the security network I'm working on," he said, "Get some sleep, I'll come back to bed when I'm done."

She nodded, sighed deeply, and he saw her body relax, and a few moments later she was asleep.

Darren picked up his laptop, and headed down stairs, and started a pot of coffee, and went to work. His current target was flesh peddler out of New Amsterdam, and this particular lowlife exploited kids. His fingers flew across the keyboard, and then just like that, he was in. The bank was about to start sending it's wire transfers. Darren sorted through the accounts, found the one he wanted, and set up a wire transfer, and drained the account. It landed in the off shore account he had set up a few days ago, and it was done. A little under a hundred thousand dollars.

He'd spend the last week working through the security to get to that account. He'd set up his own account to land the money in, and now he'd bounce it through a few more blind locations, so anyone trying to find him wouldn't be able to track him. By the day after tomorrow, it would land in one of his holding accounts.

With that done, he checked his holding accounts. He had a few of them, a little over 9 million dollars right now across all of them. He didn't keep them long. He was paranoid about not getting tracked, so the money was constantly moved. He'd been ripping off scum bags for as long as he'd been a vampire – and he'd gotten close to being caught once. He wasn't going to let that happen again. He was always perfecting his skills. Besides, it wasn't just him anymore. He had Alex to think about.

With that, he sighed, and leaned back, picking up the rapidly cooling cup of coffee. He couldn't help but think of what he'd overheard last night. The woman in the restaurant was dealing with the loss of her husband, now she was having to quit school, not see her kids as much. At least she had family that could help.

If something happened to him, Alexandra would have a nice nest egg to live off of for a while. But it occurred to him, she probably didn't know how to find it, or get to it. Sure, she knew where his local accounts were – she was on them. But they only had 100 grand in them at any given time. Alex would get by on that easily for a long time, she could be frugal. But she shouldn't have to be.

He'd show her where the accounts where, keep her appraised of the account numbers and passwords. He didn't want her to be trying to figure out where she'd go, how she'd live – ever. She'd find a way – she was resourceful, and smart, but he didn't want her to ever have to worry.

He wondered how much tuition cost for a medical assistant.

~~~OFANV~~~

Damon had seen the serious expression on his friends face when he left to take Stefan and Katherine to the airport, but he hadn't had time to ask what was going on. He knew Darren wouldn't still be pissed at Stefan. Darren got over things quick – well, some things. The minor argument with Stefan wasn't enough to piss Darren off for more than an hour.

When Damon got back from the airport, Darren was still working away at his laptop.

"Who are you robbing blind today?" Damon asked, pulling off his coat. He walked over to the bar, and poured himself a drink.

"Pimp," Darren replied, "Real scumbag. Exploits kids in New Amsterdam."

Darren's eyes never left the screen, but that didn't offend Damon or put him off. He knew Darren was really focused on something.

And then, just like that, his friend's body language changed, and he relaxed.

Damon snorted, "Deserves it. Best keep your girlfriend away from those types, you'll run out of people to rob."

Darren laughed, "Yeah, I would . . . fortunately, or unfortunately, there is always some asshole ready to step in."  
Damon went into the kitchen, got coffee, and came back out, "so what's with the tense face I saw this morning."

Darren sighed, "Last night, Alex and I were in a diner – we overhead a woman and her sister talking. Short version, the woman's husband died recently, the woman is basically screwed. They have kids . . . it happens all the time I know. But it occurred to me this morning – if something happened to me – who takes are of Alex?"

"Alex Does," Damon said, dropping down into one of the chairs, "Alex did before you met her. I'm not saying don't worry about it. I'm saying she's smart, she'd recover, and she'd get on with her life. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to set up little nest egg for her, just in case."

"She's on all my – our – accounts in the US, the off shore ones – she has no idea how to get to them. I'm gonna show her. She'll never be a hacker, it's not her thing. But at least if she knows where the money is, she can maintain a lifestyle for a while."

"Elena knows where all our money is," Damon said, "I keep trying to teach her about investing, but she's just not interested."

"Then you better not lose that day light ring or get staked," Darren said.

"Right back at you brother – unless you want your girlfriend slinging drinks in a bar, flirting with assholes for tips."

"Yeah, not gonna happen," Darren said, "that shit was hard to tolerate in Seattle. At least now I know she can break an arm if she has to."

Elena started to come down the stairs, "Who's arm needs to be broken?"

"Katherine's," Damon replied, "Taking them to the airport was pure joy – because she's not here now."

Elena laughed, "God yes . . . I don't know what your brother see's in her."

She sat on Damon's lap, yawned, and slung her arm around his neck.

"Sometimes I think he sees you in her," Damon said, "Until she opens her mouth."

All three of them laughed for a minute.

"That attitude ruins all that hotness," Darren said, "Fast. I hate to say it man, but one of these days, she's gonna leave your brother high and dry and break his heart."

"I'm not so sure his heart would be that broken," Elena said, "I think Katherine is just . . . a partner. I know he cares about her, he probably even loves her a little, but it's not love of a life time kind of love. He would be able to move on, eventually."

"Wish he'd move on now," Damon said, "Psycho bitch from hell was looking to stir up trouble the entire time she was here."

"So where did you and Alex go yesterday?" Elena asked sighing, "And yes, I'm changing the subject, she's out of our house, she's done messing with us –until next year."

"We looked at half a million jetted tubs," Darren said, laughing a little, "shower inserts, then we bounced around this Hispanic neighborhood. Alex wanted real Mexican food, then it was just beers, music, and a drunk asshole she fed off of in an alley. She let him go without draining too much out of him all on her own. I was impressed."

"Aw, the baby vampire is growing up," Damon said.

Elena sighed deeply, "I knew she'd be fine – so – did you pick out a tub?"

"I think so," Darren said, "and Tiles for the floor, and the countertops, the sink . . . she almost pretty much completed the bathroom design."

"That's good," Elena said, "We can start painting next week – and on that note – I have a study group coming here in like two hours – so I'm gonna shower, take over the dining room table – so sorry – No TV in here until tonight."

"Of course," Darren said, "Alex and I can clear out for the day."

"You don't have to leave, this is home for you guys right now," Elena said, and she kissed Damon on the cheek, "Is my very talented husband going to fix us a snack?"  
Damon smiled, "I'll come up with something."

~~~OFANV~~~

Damon sliced down the middle of the pepper, cleaned the seeds out, cut the membrane out. He'd cut up cream cheese into cubes, stuffed it into the sections of pepper, and then wrapped a slice of bacon around the whole thing, completely covering the pepper. He'd laid them out on a broiling pan, and slid it into the convection oven.

It didn't take long for the rich scent to fill the air, but he waited long enough for the bacon around the peppers to cook through to a crisp. He'd just finished a second round, and switched out the broiler pans.

When he walked out of the kitchen and into the dining room, Elena's classmates were already sniffing the air.

"Oh my god, whatever that is – it smells amazing," Cindy, one of the classmates said.

"Bacon wrapped stuffed peppers," Damon announced, setting the plate down in the middle of them, "anyone need another soda? Coffee? A beer?"  
"If I start drinking now, I'm done," Lisa replied, "Seriously done – I wouldn't say no to another diet coke."

Damon smiled, took a few more requests, and disappeared back into the kitchen. He enjoyed this part, playing host to his wife's friends.

So different from the life he had 35 years ago.

He brought drinks, plucked one of the stuffed peppers off the plate, and 20 minutes later, brought out another plate of peppers. He'd put a few aside and headed up the stairs to the bedroom Darren and Alexandra shared

He stopped at the door, and knocked, "Hope you're not naked, I'm coming in – actually, maybe I do hope you're naked . . ."

That elicited some laughed and giggles from downstairs, and a snort form inside the room.

He swung the door open.

Darren was working away on his laptop, and Alexandra had thrown open all the curtains and had laid out some of the paint pallet cards.

"You're a sick bastard, you know that right?" Darren asked him, leaning back and stretching.

Damon smiled, "And that's why the Ladies love me," Damon replied.

"Oh is this what we've been smelling?" Alexandra asked, eyeing the plate.

She grabbed one of the stuffed, wrapped peppers off the plate, bit in, and sighed contentedly. Damon turned and held the plate out to Darren.

"Robbing anyone I know?" Damon asked glibly.

"Not yet," Darren said, "I think I'm going to target some human traffickers."

"Worthy target," Damon said, "Are they local?"  
"No," Darren said, "they have local ties, but the big boss is in London – interesting choice, since you can't scratch your ass in London without it ending up on a security film."

"How is he still in business?" Damon asked, "Is it seriously that bad there?"  
"Oh yeah," Darren said, "Bad place to be a criminal. Needless to say, Alex and I will never live there. We might pass through, but that's about it."

"I wouldn't say you're a criminal exactly," Damon asked, "You're more like . . . Robin Hood."

Alexandra laughed, "That's what I call it – he hasn't said it yet – but I'd bet money he's probably already planned on hunting down this woman we sort of met yesterday who's kinda screwed and paying for her tuition."

"I'm thinking about it," Darren said, "it's not like we can track a debit or credit card to find her, we paid for her meal. But the restaurant owners might know them."

"Like I said – Robin Hood," Alexandra said, "how's it going downstairs?"

"Good I think," Damon said, "They're discussing the differences between matriarchal and patriarchal societies."

Darren blinked, "Ok . . . and?"

"And I think Elena's classmates will be damn glad when this test is over," Damon said, "they've got that deer in the headlights look."

"I don't miss this part of school," Alexandra said.

"You'll be amazed how much easier it comes now," Darren said, "if you can focus – and you can. Vampires who can't focus are pretty much screwed."  
"Vampires who can't focus are pretty much dead," Damon said, "If you can tolerate being around humans and not eating every last one of them in the room – you'll do fine."

Alexandra nodded, "Well – we will see – right now, I'm trying to narrow down paint."

"Don't agonize on this Alex – if it goes up on the wall and you hate it – we can paint over it," Darren said.

Damon looked over all the cards, "I say go bold. Make a statement."

He reached over, and picked up some strips with green tones, "But not with this – reminds me of vervaine – you do know about vervaine, right?"

"I've heard," Alexandra said, "Can't say I've ever actually seen it."

"Lucky you," Damon replied, "Ok – I'll leave you to contemplate your pallet."

Damon looked over at Darren, "Happy hunting."

~~~OFANV~~~

Damon and Darren walked into the café. Damon had been down this street before, but he'd never been inside the café. It was small and cozy, had that classic mom and pop feel to it.

"You really think they'll know who she is?" Damon asked.

"Someone will," Darren said, "When I paid for their dinner – it was two sisters, the lady running the counter seemed to know one of them had lost a husband."

Damon nodded, watching the people on the street, the people in the café.

They went up to the counter.

"Hey, I don't know if you remember me, I was here the other night with my girlfriend," Darren started, "I paid for dinner for two sisters, one of them had lost a husband? Remember?"

"Si," the woman said, "They were so grateful."

"Well, I overheard them talking, and I know she's about to drop out of school – and I'm wondering if you know where she's going?"

The woman suddenly became suspicious. Her spine stiffened, and she looked over her shoulder.

Darren leaned forward, catching her gaze, and compelled her, "I'm not a threat – I just want to help her out. Tell me her name, where she lives, and where she goes to school."  
The woman blinked, and she got that distant look in her eyes, "Her name is Maria Cordova. She lives in an apartment two blocks down, red brick building, I don't know the address. I think she's going to one of those technical schools, Ashfield or Ashment, I don't know."

"Thank you," Darren replied, "Just forget I asked."

She blinked a few times, and then it was as if she realized she'd been day dreaming, "OH! Sorry, I don't know where my mind was – what can I get you?"  
"Two Shredded beef tacos," Darren said, and he looked over at Darren.

"Same," Damon said, shrugging.

"Something to drink?" she asked.

"Coke," Darren replied.

"Two," Damon added.

"Ok, you boys sit down," she said, "I'll bring it out in a few minutes."

They walked over to a table by the window, and sat down.

"That's not much to go on, especially in a city this size," Damon said.

"I know," Darren replied, "We're gonna have to compel half the damn neighborhood."

The lady behind the counter brought over their sodas, "so what are you nice young men doing today?"

"Christmas shopping for my wife and his girlfriend," Damon replied, turning on the charm.

"My girlfriend lived outside of Mexico city for a few years when she was little," Darren said, "I was hoping I'd find something in a local shop that she might like."

"Oh well, there's a block that way – it has some nice real sterling silver jewelry, stonework from Mexico – all kinds of things she might remember."

"Thanks," Darren said.

The woman went back into the kitchen, leaving them alone.

"Alex really live in Mexico?" Damon asked.

"Six years," Darren replied, "From age six to twelve. Her mother married a drug cartel guy. He got picked off by the competition when Alex was 12."

"Alex's mother sounds like a real peach," Damon replied dryly, "You ever met her?"

"She abandoned Alex when she was 15," Darren said, "We have no idea where she went. If doubt she's even alive at this point. She had a pretty serious habit. God help her if I ever do meet her – because she tried to sell Alex to a pimp."

Damon sucked in his breath, "Yeah . . . I'll help you hide the body brother. That's fucked up – what did you do the pimp?"

Darren snorted, gave Damon one of those looks "What do you think I did?"

Damon sipped his soda, "Alex is strong. I wasn't sure she'd make it at first . . . but she's doing well, she's determined, she's got a good heart. I hope you're not letting what happened to her in the past eat you up inside now. You can't fix the past, you can't change it."

Darren managed a bitter smile, "Nope, I'm good with it. Buried it when I tossed his sorry carcass in with some hungry pigs. You know pigs will eat anything? Bones, shoes – when they're done, there is nothing left."

Damon sighed, "Wasn't there some serial killer who did that?"  
Darren nodded, "Yes there was. I worked on a few farms growing up. Mexican pigs are just like American pigs and Canadian pigs apparently."

Damon contemplated what Darren said for a moment, "This would have been good information to know - like two months ago brother. Could have saved us the whole issue with her first few bodies."

Darren laughed, "We're in New York City – you think there's a pig farm within a day's drive of this city?"

It took Darren and Damon most of the day to find out where Maria Cordova lived and where she was going to school. Darren's comment about compelling half the neighborhood had been starting to feel pretty accurate by the time they were done. But now, Darren knew where she was going to school. Tomorrow he'd pay her tuition, and he'd go back to the landlord and pay for the next six months of rent too.

"I get that his is what you do - the whole Robin Hood thing from time to time," Damon said, "But how do we know she's not just gonna go shopping?"

"Because I'm paying her tuition directly, and I'm paying the landlord directly, and I'll put the fear of god into the landlord to make sure he won't just pocket the money," Darren replied.

They were just about to catch a cab to meet the ladies, and they'd stopped by a news stand. One of the headlines that caught their attention.

'Vigilante strikes again'.

Damon picked the paper, handed the guy working the stand couple dollars, and folded the paper back to read the article.

"Two more," Damon said quietly, so only Darren could hear, "Last week – roughly dismembered and spread out across several city blocks in various dumpsters –and no one has seen a thing."

"This is getting way out of control," Darren replied, "This moron is attracting way too much attention."

Damon nodded, sighing, "I wouldn't really know how to contact Vlad anyhow – but Leo and Richard might."

Darren had been trying to wave down a taxi, and one finally pulled over.

"What are we gonna do, tell him to play nice and stop?" Darren said.

"Run his ass out of my city," Damon replied, "Stake him if we have to. I don't really care, as long as this stuff stops."

~~~OFANV~~~

It had been a long day for Alexandra. She'd sat down with the advisor evaluating her transcripts, seriously doubting he had really read the course descriptions or even looked at anything. But after two long tedious hours, she gave up, and compelled him. Screw it, she had the talent, she should use it.

Then she went to register, knowing that the microbiology class and the chemistry class were full. But she could wait list, and someone always dropped. If they didn't, well maybe she'd compel someone again. She picked up the text books, and headed back to the townhouse Damon and Elena owned.

It was bitter cold outside, and even with the heavy coat a scarf and hat, when the wind blew, it bit right through her cloths and bit at her skin. Weren't Vampires supposed to be colder? Maybe this was just part of the whole super sensitive nerves things or something. She'd wanted to explore the neighborhood around the campus a little, just to get a feel for it, but the cold was just too much. She ducked into a coffee shop to warm up.

There was a long line of students doing pretty much the same thing. She got in line, watched the crowd around her ebb and flow.

The coffee shop was set up for students. The tables were wide and deep, heavy durable wood, scarred and beat up like students had been using them too. There were simple wood hard back chairs around them, and along the wall, someone had run conduit – connecting to power outlets. They hadn't opened up the wall to upgrade the electricity. No point in prettying it up right?

Most of the tables were taken, and several of them had large groups around them, text books and lap tops laying out. There were flyers up on the walls, the bottoms cut to create little tear off tabs. Most of the students were young – some of them really young – freshman maybe.

The line moved slowly, and it didn't take long for her to get bored. The two girls working behind the counter were clearly students who didn't see the value in hurrying thing sup.

Her phone rang, and she pulled it from her pocket, it was Elena.

"Hey," Alexandra asked, "How'd your test go?"

"I think it went fine, but some of my classmates are freaking out – big time. We're going to this bar right off campus – are you still close by?"

"Yeah actually, I'm in this coffee shop on . . . 48th," Alexandra said, "Waiting in the slowest moving line – where is the bar?"

"On 44th," Elena said, "just go back towards the campus, hang a left – you'll see it. It's called Gino's. There's a decent crowd gathering, I'll save you seat."

Alexandra smiled, "I'm on my way."

She slid her phone back into her pocket, looked around the coffee shop one more time. Might be a good place to study – maybe.

Back outside, she was reminded once again that even as a vampire, she as not immune to the cold. The wind gusted every now and then, and the sky was starting to turn – not just because of the time, but with clouds.

If those clouds let loose, it would snow. Seattle was a nightmare when it snowed. No one there seemed to know how to drive in it, the city busses weren't well equipped for it. She wondered what the weather had been like in Seattle. She hadn't done more than browse Facebook or send general messages about how much she was enjoying New York to the friends she had back in Seattle. She couldn't stay close to them, they'd see differences over time.

And here she was – about to start making new ones – friends she'd walk away from in five or six years.

This totally sucked.

No wonder Damon and Elena stayed close with that eclectic group of reforming psychopath's she'd met over the holiday weekend.

When she reached the bar, she could see what Elena meant, the crowd was growing. There was maybe 15 to 18 people that had taken over the back corner and shoved tables together. One of the waitresses was working hard and fast, delivering bottled beer, beers in pounder glasses, and picking up empties just as quick.

The bartender was lining some up on the counters as well, and she could hear someone in the kitchen complaining that someone else needed to get their ass into work early today if it was going to be like this.

Yep, standard college bar.

Like the coffee shop, the tables were wood, sturdy, and took abuse well, heavy wood chairs – also designed to take abuse well. There were framed posters on the walls, neon signs for different brands of beer, and TV's that hung from the corners, and one big screen – all tuned into different sporting events, and one on a local news channel.

Elena waved at her, and Alexandra saw a few heads turn to look at her, their gazes curious. She recognized a few of the others from Elena's study group.

"Hey Alex!" Elena said, pulling her coat off a chair, "Come celebrate with us!"  
"More like commiserate," someone else said.

Alexandra stripped off her coat, hung it on back of the chair and set her purse down on the floor, right in front of her feet.

"That bad huh?" Alexandra asked.

"You can bet Victoria passed," someone said.

A few people laughed. Someone made a comment about the professor grading her blow job technique.

"He's an old pervert," Elena said, "Not even attractive."

"We had one of those in the biology department in Seattle," Alexandra said, "If it had two legs and tits, he'd screw it."

Elena has passed a new, full beer to Alexandra. Alexandra took a big sip, and sighed deeply, "Yeah, much better than coffee."

"How'd it go with registration?" Elena asked her.

"It took way too long, I don't think the counselor guy even looked at my transcript before I got there, but I'm registered now – on wait lists for two of my sciences – and I'm registered for this other class – English lit – god help me."

"Damon loved English lit," Elena said, "But you've seen his book collection."

"Oh yeah," Alexandra said, "I'm sure I'll be picking his brain – speaking of which – have you heard from them? Last message I got was that they got some of their stuff done."

"I got the same text," Elena said, "Damon is realizing his Spanish still sucks."

"It doesn't help that there are some differences depending on where you're from," Alexandra said, "Are they joining us?"

"Probably," Elena said, "Damon usually does."

The waitress came by and set down a big platter of nachos, and everyone dove in.

"So – how'd you end up in New York?" Cindy asked.

Alexandra sipped her beer, "We needed a change, mostly it was just a series of crappy events that just got overwhelming, and we'd joked about saying we should leave Seattle, get away from the bad luck, and then we did."

"Has it worked?" Lisa asked.

"So far," Alexandra said, "It still feels like vacation sort of, because I don't start classes until January."

"So how did you settle on microbiology? Cindy asked, "That sounds really hard."

"Well, when I started school, I was originally thinking a business degree – because that's always good right – and I had student loans, I had a bartending job, it was great. Independent – poor as a church mouse. Well my second quarter came alone, and I had a biology class – and I just got interested. There are some very good jobs in biotech."

"So that's it . . . good job opportunities?"

"That's about half of it," Alexandra said, "It's interesting too. I grew up dirt ass poor, my mother was a junky and we were homeless half the time, and eventually I lived in foster care. Having a steady paycheck is pretty damn appealing."

Elena clicked the neck of her beer bottle against Alexandra's "I hear that. My husband's obsessive about our finances. A lot of people would be happy to deplete what they inherited, spend it all and just party it away. Not Damon, he made sure he knew how to manage and grow it, thankfully."

"You always hear how bad foster care is – is it really that bad?" Cindy asked her, "I mean – if you don't mind talking about it."

Alexandra sipped her beer, "I'm ok it with – I had it good really. I went through two foster homes and they were cheap bastards, kept the money for themselves and didn't get us the stuff we needed, but I wasn't getting molested or anything. But I knew other kids in foster care, and yeah – it is that bad. But there are a lot of really good foster parents out there too. Just not as many as there were opportunists. Most people that take in foster kids think of those kids as just a paycheck."

"Jesus . . . my parents thought about it, but they could barely keep up with my brother and me, so they didn't do it, but I think they would have been good foster parents," Cindy said.

"Probably," Alexandra said, "What do they do now? Is your brother still at home?"

"Oh yeah – he wants to be a doctor, my parents are very proud. Makes up for me wanting to be an anthropologist," Cindy said, laughing.

~~~~~OFANV~~~~~

The room was lit only with candles. Damon had set out dozens of them and lit them – all in thick glass holders. When Elena came home, properly buzzed from her evening with her classmates, he'd had their room all set up. Soft glow from the candle light, chocolate dipped strawberries set on a plate for her . . .

That had been hours ago. She'd giggled, fell easily into his arms, and they'd made love slowly, enjoying each other, feeling, touching, stroking, again and again, until they were both exhausted and spent.

Now, hours later, they were just wrapped up in each other, enjoying the quietness of the middle of the night.

"I never did ask how your day went," Elena said, "tell me."

Damon smiled, "Playing Robin Hood? Educational, my Spanish really sucks. Darren made a joke at one point about how we'd probably have to compel half the neighborhood – he was right."

Elena smiled, trailed her fingertip across his across his chest, "I'm glad you went with him."

Damon laughed, "He didn't need me at all. I think he does this all the time."  
Damon stroked his hand up Elena's back, "Seriously though – it was cool. Had taco's at this great little mom and pop style café, went through half a dozen little family owned shops, the FBI should hire him – he's better at finding people than they are."

Elena laughed, "I don't see that happening."

"No," Damon said, "Me either. It was all peachy until we saw that headline on the bottom of the newspaper about the vigilante."

Elena groaned a little, "Who did the two of you go see? Richard and Leo?"

Damon toyed with a lock of her hair, "They may have a way to contact him. We don't know if he still uses that email address or that number."

Elena was quiet for a few moments, "What will you do – if you find him."  
"Ask him to politely get the hell out of my city – once," Damon said, "After that – we do what we have to."

~~~OFANV~~~

**As always – would love to know what you're thinking – I got 1 whole comment this last time, yet the page stats tell me over 100 different people actually stopped to read. Starting to wonder if I should even bother finishing this story.**


	9. Chapter 9

**As always, it all belongs to the CW, their producers and undoubtedly half a dozen other people I don't know about. The only characters that are mine are the ones I created. **

**Again, I'd love to know what you think, what you think could be added, what you want to see less of, or more off. I take those suggestions and run with them. Last time, someone asked for more drama – so I am working that in a little more. So please, review away! I look forward to them!**

~~~OFANV~~~

Richard sipped the drink Damon had poured him. When he'd arrived, Damon had opened the door, invited him in (not that it was necessary for the invite, there wasn't a living owner here after all). Richard shook his hand, made a show of looking around the room, obviously judging. He shed his expensive fancy looking wool coat and scarf, handed them to Damon as if Damon was waiting on him. Damon rolled his eyes, and then hung the coat and scarf unceremoniously on the coat rack by the front door, practically tossing them there.

Richard shook hands with Darren, greeted Elena and Alexandra, and then took a seat in a single plush chair. He was dressed in an expensive tailored suit, a dark navy blue that was almost black, and wing tip shoes that looked as if they'd been shined that day. He had heavy gold cuff links on, a thin gold bar link on a chain holding the tie in pace The tie was Versace, Elena judged. Even his hair was perfect, it was cut short, parted perfect, and had some kind or product in it to keep it in place.

In direct contrast – Damon wore black designer jeans, a pair of men's black leather boots, a dark green button up long sleeve shirt, but untucked. His inky black hair had just a hint of unruliness to it – just the way Elena liked to see it. Of course, she usually had a hand in his hair looking just a little messy, since her hands were always in it.

Elena had on skinny jeans, rich brownish-red knee high boots and a snug fitting V-neck top, a long draping cardigan sweater ever that. Her long brown hair hung loose, and she'd let the natural wave dictate how it laid. She rarely flat ironed her hair these days. She had on just a hint of makeup as well.

Alexandra had on dark boot cut style jeans, dark espresso brown lace up booties on underneath. She had a light peach crop top and a dark brown fitted canvass jacket. Her out of control red curly hair was just that today – the out of control layered curls hung down her back, she'd kept them back from her face with a simple head band.

Darren had worn his thick dark brown hair loose and long. It was straw straight, and reached half way down his back. He kept the mustache and goatee combo that framed his mouth trimmed in short and neat. He'd worn a simple thick white V-neck t-shirt, boot cut jeans and the biker boots underneath.

Where their guest looked like he as dressed for a boardroom, the rest of them looked comfortably casual.

Elena wondered what Richard had been thinking when he looked around the great room of the home she and Damon shared. She and Damon had chosen classic timeless pieces, and it was a comfortable home, and she loved it. It occurred to her that the home Richard and Leo shared probably looked like a museum. She wondered how anyone really enjoyed or lived in a space like that.

Damon offered Richard a drink, and they sat down to talk. It was all small talk at first, the political fundraiser Richard and Leo were going to this weekend. Damon brought up the fundraiser for the toys and clothing drive for children and needy families they were going to the following weekend. Richard wasn't sure he and Leo would attend something like that, but perhaps they'd send a check.

Elena took that as a flat out lie. It was as if it was beneath them. She'd met Richard and Leo before – briefly – at the charity balls she and Damon went to. She'd always thought they were a little on the arrogant side. But seeing them out of a formal environment really drove that point home.

"He did call," Richard said, sipping the expensive liquor from the glass, and he watched it swirl in his glass for a moment, then turned his gaze back on Damon, then on Elena, and then on to Darren and Alexandra.

"However he declined to meet with us or discuss the issue," Richard said, "I'm sorry."  
Damon sipped his own drink, "That's a real shame."  
Elena rested her hand on Damon's leg. She could feel the tension building in Damon. She glanced over at Alexandra and Darren as well. Alexandra's face conveyed boredom, and that was good. Right now, drawing attention to why this might be so important to her was a bad idea. She wouldn't have been able to pull this off two months ago.

"Damon, Leo and I are well aware that you are not going to let this go," Richard said, "Tread carefully."  
Damon gave Richard a smug smile, "Behavior like this attracts hunters. I'm just not quite sure why you're ok with all of this."

"If we do nothing to attract the hunter to ourselves, then we have nothing to worry about. Think of it as evolution – or Darwinism – survival of the fittest. A lesson this rather young vampire should learn, and learn well."

Richard looked over at Alexandra, his gaze openly assessing. Darren's eyes narrowed, the look on his face instantly protective and possessive.

Alexandra's expression went from bored to mildly curious, as if everything was only interesting now, because the attention was on her. She gave a dramatic sigh, "I have very good friends that have been very kind in helping me make the adjustment."

Darren snorted, then asked Richard, "Have you ever actually had to live low key when there's a hunter in town? It's not so easy."  
Richard flicked an imaginary piece of lint off his suit jacket, "I've been a vampire for three hundred years. I've dealt with hunters – of all kinds."

"And yet you're still around," Elena said coldly, "amazing, considering your attitude."

Richard looked at Elena for a moment.

"I shall take my leave," Richard said, "Until next time."

He stood, and Damon stood as well, Darren followed, and they walked him to the door. They were all quiet for a few moments.

Alexandra immediately dropped the facade she'd put on when Richard was there, "Pretty damn cavalier for someone who's ever dealt with hunters. I was scared shitless when that hunter came after Seth – and I was human at the time. He killed two other people that were there, just because they saw."  
"There are only 5 supernatural hunters at any given time," Elena said, "The guy that chasing Vlad – may just be a regular human hunter."

"And they can still be really dangerous," Damon added, "Richard isn't going to be any help at all."  
"That may not be quite true," Darren said, "I could hack that snobby bastards phone records, see who's called him – see who they are – it might take a while to figure out which number is really Vlad's of course, but I can do it."

"Without getting caught?" Damon asked.

Darren snorted, and pretended to be offended, "are you kidding me?"

Damon handed Darren his phone, "Both Richard's and Leo's phone numbers are in there. They'll expect something like this."

"They might expect it, but they won't see me coming," Darren said, "Even if he had a burner and dumps it – I'll find him. People are creatures of habit."

Damon sighed, they were. He was – which was why Richard knew they wouldn't give this up.

"Why are they protecting him?" Elena asked, "I didn't buy the whole Darwin act speech. Vlad doesn't keep up with Richard and Leo – I thought."

"He doesn't, they aren't close," Damon replied, "Something is definitely off."

Alexandra sighed deeply, "Do you think they knew the first few were mine?"

"They probably suspect," Damon said, "But that's not the point. We're going to give him a chance to stop and leave. We'll play nice – until we can't."

~~~OFANV~~~

Dust hung in the air for a few moments, and Damon looked over at Darren. They'd been tearing apart the bathroom for half the day. They were dressed for the work, old jeans, old t-shirts. Darren had pulled his hair back in a tail, braided it down.

They'd made sure they knew which walls were weight bearing and which were not. They'd turned off the water, cut the electricity to the two rooms. Then they started tearing everything out. It should have been therapeutic, help burn off the tension they were feeling over the conversation they'd had with Richard yesterday.

"Feel better?" Darren asked him, wiping some of the dust off his face.

"Nope," Damon said, looking around the room, "I still can't figure out why they're protecting him. It doesn't make sense."

Darren nodded, pulled at a piece of drywall precariously hanging by the remains of the paperboard, "I'm tracking four burner phone's – all opened in the last six months – and none of them fit the pattern – none of them were near the other murders."

Damon nodded, "Maybe he didn't take his phone with him."  
Darren shook his head, "We're ripping apart a house right now Damon – where's your phone?"

"In my back pocket," Damon replied, "I Know the point you're going to make."

"He'd have to have been planning ahead and purposely leave his cell phone behind – if it's one of those phones – and from what you told me about Vlad . . ."

"He's not that careful," Damon finished, "Damnit . . . maybe he has a phone registered under someone else's name."

"Which suggests planning," Darren said, "But that crossed my mind – I'll reset my tracking parameters."

"Maybe you should be tracking Richard or Leo's phones," Damon said, sighing deeply.

"Maybe," Darren said, "Are we sure this is the work of a vampire? Maybe it's a human – most humans would have just thought the original killer was getting creative."

"The bodies are almost completely drained dry of blood," Damon said, "So if it's a human – they've working damn hard to pull this off."

"When we butchered livestock, we killed them, hung them by their feet, slit their throats and drained the blood – we got them pretty dry."

Damon sighed, "OK . . . it's possible."

"But not likely," Darren said, "still, can't harm seeing who they know that fits the pattern."

As if to prove the point about how people rarely left their cell phone at home, Darren's cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, answered it, "Hey babe."

~~~OFANV~~~

Alexandra was sitting in the passenger seat, and Elena was driving.

"We're leaving the hardware store – and I know it's creeping up on lunch – what do you guys want?"

Darren laughed, "Oh I don't know – we could break in some of the guest rooms."  
Alexandra laughed, "Perv! To eat!"

"I'm flexible babe –you know that – I'll ask Damon."

"Burgers or something," Damon said, "Elena knows how I take it."

"You get that?" Darren asked.

"Yep," Alexandra snorted, seeing the opportunity to dish a little attitude back, "I just bet she does . . . oh food! Ha ha! Seriously though -how is the tear out going?"

"Pretty good," Darren said, "I think we worked off some of yesterday's tension. We're about to start dragging the debris out – don't park too close to the house – I think we're gonna try to a little dry wall - dumpster basketball through the guest room window."

Alexandra laughed, "Yeah, we'll park at the end of the driveway."

"Did you get the plumbing stuff we asked for – we had to turn off the water."

"Yep," Alexandra said, "Hard to make it out of the store – I saw this enormous tree I fell in love with."

"Hey, we can throw a tree up in the living room downstairs after we paint," Darren said, "and sleep here, we just gotta throw a bed here, eat out every day, I'm game."

"Like hell!" Damon said, "You're staying with us until the house is ready."  
Darren heard a similar response from Elena in the background.

"I think that's settled," Alexandra said, laughing, "I'd say we compel our way into getting what we want, when we want it, but under the circumstances . . ."

Darren signed, "yeah, just in case a hunter comes to town with Santa, maybe we should play it human. Sucks doesn't it."

"I know right – I'm actually starting to enjoy some of my newly acquired talents . . . and now I gotta be super careful – Ok, we'll find a local take out place near the house. See you soon. Love you."

"Love you too baby."  
Damon smirked a little bit, listening to the conversation.

"This timing sucks," Darren sighed, after he'd hung up the phone.

"Death over a toilet seat – I say wait the six weeks," Damon said, "It's not like you don't have a place to stay."

Darren nodded.

They took turns gathering up debris, tossing it out the window.

"What's the witch population like in this city?" Darren asked, "I haven't met a single one yet."  
"I only know of two," Damon said, "which doesn't mean much. One of them is reasonable – the other is sketchy. I don't go looking them up generally. Vampires and witches don't generally mix well. There could be 50 of them in the city and I wouldn't know."

~~~OFANV~~~

It was an old jeans and old t-shirt kind of day, and that was exactly how Alexandra and Elena had dressed. They'd gone to one of the big hardware stores to get the plumbing pieces Damon and Darren wanted, and they gotten several 5 gallon tubs of primer, rollers, pans, all kinds of thing.

"We'll have some help day after tomorrow," Elena said, "I don't think having some of my girlfriends from school around when Damon and Darren rip out things that should take 10 guys is a good idea."

Alexandra laughed, "Yeah, not a good idea – we have a lot of prep to do as it is."

"Diner," Alexandra said, "There – on the corner – I think it's a diner."

"Looks like food to me," Elena commented, "there's a lot of little cute shops and café near your new place."

Alexandra nodded, "Yep . . . I'm sorry, I should be bouncing off the walls with excitement, but I keep thinking about Richards visit yesterday. Darren spent the whole day breaking through that security – which probably was easy for him, but it was the look on his face . . . this whole fucking mess is my fault."  
Elena parked the suv, "No, it's not. It was my idea remember – none of us expected someone would copycat us. Most vampire's drain the bodies and just dump them or bury them. Not a whole lot of places to bury a body in New York City."

"Did you have trouble at first?" Alexandra asked her.

"God yes," Elena said, "It's a long story but this problem we're facing now, it's just something that happens. This crap could happen to a human, think about it. Someone kills someone who raped their daughter or son, disposes of the body and then someone else copy cats the murder. Now there is two murders and the police have to pay attention. I can understand the first killing, I can even understand the second, but what Vlad is doing now, what Richard and Leo are doing, this is all just . . . stupid – and foolish."

They got out of SUV, both of them looking around as they walked.

"I can usually figure out why people do the things they do," Alexandra said, "Even if I don't agree with it – this . . . there is no rhyme or reason."

"We don't have all the pieces yet," Elena said, "When we do . . . we'll deal with it."

~~~OFANV~~~

Elena backed the SUV into the driveway – just far enough to not block the sidewalk. As they were pulling up, they saw a big hunk of something come flying out of the window and land in the dumpster. She and Alexandra got out, take out bags in hand, and another piece came flying out.

"I see one of my new neighbors," Alexandra said quietly, "Across the street – looking out the window – probably enjoying the show."

Elena turned and looked. Sure enough, there was a white haired elderly lady, looking out her window at them. She raised her hand and waved.

Elena and Alexandra waved back.

"And that means we can only carry in one bucket at time," Elena said, "gotta play it human."

"Yeah," Alexandra said, "I think you're right, damnit."

The four of them sat down on the floor of the empty living room, spreading out their lunch.

"So the café we got this at," Alexandra said, "Nice friendly little family owned place. It's all burger's and chicken strips, that kind of thing, friendly people, and there's a minimart next door."

Darren bit into the burger, chewed, tasted, swallowed his first bite. Damon did the same thing.

"Decent," Darren said, "You see the granny across the street?"

"Oh yeah," Alexandra said, "I'm sure you're dumpster basketball practice has been very entertaining for her."

"Nice thing about little old ladies who look out windows, they know what's going on in the whole neighborhood," Damon said, "that could be useful."  
"I was kinda thinking we'd take her cookies and say hello just for the hell of it, but hey," Alexandra commented.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of the supernatural," Damon said, "Get to know all your neighbors Red. You'd be surprised who lives just around the corner sometimes."

"Mario – Seth's partner – I ran into him by accident – literally in grocery store. It was something about the way he moved that tipped me off," Darren told her.

Alexandra swallowed a piece of her burger, "I knew something as off with Mario before I knew what he was."

"He's just odd," Darren commented, "I wonder how he's doing now. We've never heard from him since he left Seattle."

Everyone was quiet for a moment.

"Damon and I have met some vampires who are rather social when you live close, but when they move on – they move on. Mario lost someone he loved, it's got to be hard for him."

"I'm sure it was," Alexandra said, "I can't imagine."  
Darren leaned over, brushed a gentle kiss to her forehead, "We'll be fine. We're careful."

Save for those damn bodies in the dumpsters . . . Alexandra thought.

They tore through lunch pretty quickly, and Darren and Damon went back to cleaning out the debris in the master bath/bedroom that had been demolished. Alexandra and Elena started in on all the prep work. Pulling the molding off the bases of the walls, the covers on electrical outlets and light switches. Alexandra labeled with tape where each cover went, and then they covered the parts they couldn't remove with tape. They did that throughout the entire house, not trying to salvage the molding. They'd replace it when they put in the hard wood floors.

Damon and Darren capped the plumbing and created a by-pass, so the rest of the house could have running water while they were working on the bathroom upstairs. They'd even been able to start tearing out the kitchen down stairs

The wrapped it up around 6:00 pm, locked up the house, closed up the dumpster, and headed home. They had an evening out planned tonight with some of the girls from the college.

~~~OFANV~~~

Damon dressed in black slacks, nice black leather boots, and a rich dark navy blue dress shirt with just a hint of a sheen to it. He had the top couple of buttons undone. He'd added just a little bit of hair product to his hair, mussing it up so it looked like he'd just rolled out of bed from wild sex. In reality, he'd just had that wild sex in the shower with his wife.

While Elena finished getting ready, he sat back with his tablet, sorting through the headlines. A small article on the vigilante, but no new bodies, no new information. But mostly he just watched Elena.

She was wearing a short light colored silk bathrobe, sitting at her vanity desk fixing her makeup.

"So, is working on this house a chore, or are you enjoying it?" Elena asked, even though she knew the answer.

"What's not to like, we're getting to tear things up," Damon said, his tone amused, "It's nice to have buddy that's a vampire around – a good friend."

Elena smiled, "It is . . . we haven't really had that much the last fifteen years," Elena said, "Friends like us. Do you think Darren was in Seattle – when we were there 15 years ago?"

"No," Damon said, "I asked – He was only there for the last 3 years. Before that, it as LA – he's been kind of a tumble weed, until now."

Elena sat back, to take a good look at her work in the mirror, satisfied, she stood up, strode into the walk in closet, and came out with two dresses. One was ice blue, the other a daring red. She held them up.

Damon sighed, looking at both dresses, "I like them both on you . . . but you know me, the more daring, the better – the red."

She smiled, thinking of a discussion about the red dress vs a blue dress – 30 some years ago.

She came out with the Red dress again, and laid it down on the end of the bed, and went to the dresser, and pulled out a matching red strapless bra and panties.

Damon smiled smugly. This was often one of the best parts of his day, watching his wife get dressed – and then helping her get undressed later on . . .

The party dress was strapless, the bodice hugging her curves snugly, and the skirt just a little looser once it passed the curve of her hip, but there was still a kick split in back. She chose simple black 3 inch heels, a few pieces of glittery costume party jewelry. She'd curled up her hair a little.

She sorted through her clutch purse, and Damon stood up, slipping his wallet into his pocket.

"Ready?" she asked.

Damon smirked, "I was born ready."

~~~OFANV~~~

Alexandra had on a dark plumb colored dress on. It had a wide tank top style straps, the bodice cut into a V-neck, flared out slightly at the hip. She'd pulled her hair back from her face with a few decorative combs, and she'd done her makeup up with a little bit of drama.

Darren had on navy blue slacks, lighter blue dressy shirt, one of the thick gold link necklaces around his neck that she often saw him wear.

They'd taken a cab to the club, and the bouncer at the door was the same man that was in one of Elena's classes. He pulled back the velvet rope, they talked for a few minutes, and then headed inside out of the cold night air.

Inside, just as before, the air vibrated with the music. They made wound their way through the club, claimed the small VIP pit that Elena had called to reserve ahead of time. Reserving the VIP pit meant they had to spend at least $200 on a liquor, but that was easily accomplished between the four of them and the handful of Elena's friends from collage

Slowly, their group grew. Some of Elena's friends from school showed up with boyfriends or girlfriends, or just a friend, and there was couple that Damon knew from his favorite sports bar joined them as well. It was a relaxed, fun evening at first. They drank, they danced, talked about holiday plans, some of the things that were on the news.

It was late, just after 1 am when Alexandra saw him. Tall, lean, blond hair, features almost gaunt. It was something about the way he moved. She watched for a few more minutes, saw a moment of intense gaze between him and the woman he was dancing with, and then they started heading towards the back of the club.

Alexandra turned around, looking for Darren, or Elena, or Damon. It was just her and Damon at the moment, and two other girls from the college. Alexandra grabbed Damon's arm, yelled his ear, "I just saw him – that guy that one night in the club like almost two months ago!

And then she tore through the crowd after him.

Damon was hot on her heels. He hadn't seen who Alexandra saw, but he certainly wasn't going to let her face whoever it was on her own if it was in fact Vlad, or any other vampire.

Alexandra wove through the crowd, moving almost too fast. It was hard to hold back, rein it in. Her blood was roaring through her veins, the energy, the drive to hunt almost overwhelming, even though it wasn't a human she was stalking.

This man put her new life in danger, put Darren and her only other real friends in danger, she'd be damned if she let this go.

They reached the opening to the hallway which lead back to rest room, and farther back to an exit. Damon grabbed Alexandra, yanking her back so hard she stumbled. He whirled them around, so she was behind him, and he leaped forward.

Once they had the seclusion of the hall, he blurred forward – not having to worry about anyone seeing them back here. They rounded the corner in a millisecond.

The other vampire was there, with a woman who had that blank, vacant expression on her face. The other vampire spun around, teeth bared and snarled.

Damon bared his own teeth, throwing his arms wide, palms flat and open.

"We just want to talk!" Damon snarled.

Alexandra stepped to the side, so Damon wouldn't be in her path if she needed to lunge. She knew Damon was immensely stronger than her – but she didn't know who this was in front of them either.

"Then talk!" the other vampire said. His accent was not Russion – in fact, it sounded Irish.

"Who are you?" Damon asked.

The snarl was gone, Alexandra could hear the change in his voice, but she remained poised to lunge. Her gut instinct was that this could go bad quick.

"I am Nigel," he said, "Nigel McKinnon, and who might you be?!"

"Damon Salvatore," Damon said, relaxing, lowering his arms, "this is Alexandra."

Nigel watched them for a moment.

"I presume you have a reason for interrupting my meal," he asked, his tone and body language telling him he was pissed.

"Someone's been draining people dry, dismembering them, leaving them in pieces in dumpsters," Damon said, "is it you?"  
"I'm not bleedin' stupid!" Nigel snapped, "I've seen the newspaper reports! Whoever it is, is asking to be caught! That's the kind of thing that attracts hunters!"

Damon snorted, "I talked with two other vampires, and they're laying it at the feet of someone named Vlad – described as tall, lean blond hair . . ."

"Hah!" Nigel scoffed, "Whoever told you that is wrong – Vlad doesn't stay in any one city more than a week, the fool ate a hunter's wife, and now he can't stop running. Damned hunter is so obsessed with finding and killing Vlad, he's left a path of destruction in his wake that's attracting attention from governments and police agencies all over Europe. The whole situation is buggered all to hell."

"That's rather interesting," Damon said, "Know two vampires named Richard and Leo?"

The vampire raised an eyebrow, "With all that's been going on, not sure I want to, you gonna call off your wee girly there or not? She's looking a bit deranged."  
Damon glanced over his shoulder at Alexandra.

Alexandra ran a hand through her hair, and glanced from Damon, then back to Nigel, "I'm quite sane, thank you."

Damon gave Nigel his cell number, asked him to call him so they could meet and talk another time, and they left him alone. They emerged back out onto the dance floor, worked their way through the crowd and to VIP pit. Elena and Darren were still gone, and Alexandra looked around the club, here eyes scanning the crowd, still uneasy.

"Dancing," Damon said, in her ear," up near the corner near the bar."

Alexandra spotted them, and relaxed.

Damon caught the attention of their waitress, and he ordered another round of drinks for the people in their group. The waitress keyed in their order to a hand held tablet, and cleared away the empty glasses and beer bottles.

Alexandra smoothed her skirt down, sat down, crossed one leg over the other.

"Jeeze Damon – how do we ever know how many of us are around?"

"We don't," Damon sighed, "It's a big city, easy to disappear in, hence the reason we like it. You can bet there are a few more here than in Seattle."

Alexandra watched the crowd, "You think he's pissed we made him?"

Damon snorted, "He should be embarrassed that we made him - that you did."

"I saw him once before," Alexandra said, "and I'm a bartender. I watch crowd behavior."  
Damon rolled his eyes, "still."

"What the hell is going on Damon? Your _friend_ – Richard is setting Vlad up," Alexandra said, still watching the crowds around them.

"I don't know," Damon said, "but I sure as hell intend to find out."

~~~OFANV~~~

They'd spent the day decorating Elena and Damon's home, nursing the mild hangovers with bloody-Marys' in the morning, and eggnog laced with rum or brandy depending on the preference of the person drinking it. Damon had started a roaring fire in the fireplace, turned the heat down in the main room. Elena had turned the radio on to a local station that played holiday music. It as a comfortable and relaxed day. They'd put up a Christmas tree, strung lights all through it. Lots of the decorations Elena and Damon hung were things they picked up in all the places they'd been. They strung long strands of holly laced garlands, along the railings of the stairs, along the railways along upper walkway that looked down at the great room. Damon put up mistletoe in most of doorways, cracking a joke about taking advantage of every possible opportunity he could. Outside, they hung a wreath on the door, strung the dangling tiered icicle lights along the roof line, outlined their doorway and porch rails with lights.

Damon made a light salad for dinner, liberally topped with shrimp sautéed in a sweet white wine, and they spent the evening lounging on the sectional sofa, talking about decorating mishaps from years past, their own and some of their friends. It was a totally idyllic day, something that reminded one of hallmark or lifetime movies channels with the requisite happily ever after scenes.

~~~OFANV~~~

Darren and Alexandra drove over to their house Sunday morning early, just to check on it. Any house getting a remodel tended to attract the attention of vandal and thieves, not that there was anything worth stealing at this point. It was early, and they'd stopped for strong espresso on the way. The temperature was dropping again, the weather reports were predicting snow, and the gathering dark clouds backed the report up.

As they got out of the car, Darren pulled Alexandra into his side, and they just paused for a moment, looking at the front of the house.

"Next year, we can go all crazy, decorate all the bushes and trees, light the house up, put those lighted yard figurines in our front yard, piss of the neighborhood scrooge."

Alexandra smiled, was quiet for a moment.

"I've never had a house you know – I mean – I lived in a house, where rented a room in one – but to be with friends now, to know we're going to have our own place . . . this is like a dream to me! Yesterday, and today – I'm almost afraid I'm going to wake up and it's not going to be real," Alexandra said.

"Having to drink blood aside, it's a pretty damn good dream," Darren added.

Alexandra laughed, "That's not so bad, or maybe I'm a little crazy or bent or something . . . I was drinking from you before I turned, regularly."

Darren smiled a little, feeling his body react, just thinking about how good it felt when she drank from him.

They walked around the outside of the house, then went inside, walked through it, then back down stairs. It was cool, they'd turned the heat down to 50 when they left.

"Next year," Darren said, "We could put a tree up by the front window, just to the side, so we can still see out, but so people who are driving by or walking by can see it. A fire in the fireplace, go a little crazy with the garlands."

Alexandra smiled, "When I was a kid, and mom and I were in Mexico, we had some really good days – and it seems odd to be so fond of these memories, considering my stepfather was a drug dealer, and he could be vicious. You know all this – you lived there – we went poinsettia crazy, and there were all these parties, nativity scenes were everywhere – my mother took me to all these parties for the kids. I remember there was always a piñata at these things – all these different pastries, and we did the 12 nights of Christmas – the decorations had to come down on the 5th of January, it was bad luck to have them up on the 6th."

Darren walked her over to the sliding glass door that gave them a view of back yard. It was a mess right now, everything was overgrown, and the grass was patchy, almost non-existent in some areas.

"That tree in the back corner – we could hang up a piñata there, invite the neighborhood over for barbecue's in the summer, let the kids go crazy. When I was a kid, the little kids got the first couple swings at the piñata, so they all got a chance to swing at it. She always got these piñatas that we had to beat the living hell out of – and she'd fill them herself. Wrapped candies, little trinkets . . . I remember my mother and grandmother always sewing these little dolls, my grandfather and a couple uncles carving little toys out of wood – they did that all year – some of it they sold, some of it they stashed away for the Christmas festivities. We were dirt ass poor, but we always had a good Christmas season. We were always stocking up on things when we could get them cheap – and sometimes around the holidays – we'd get a bottle of tequila or some other kind of booze from the people we worked for – hell one year my cousin and I lifted a case of tequila from this distillery we got seasonal work at – and we saved it for Christmas festivities. El jefe was always so drunk it was amazing more stuff didn't come up missing. The adults and some of the teenagers in the family were so blasted that year after some of the parties, the Christmas miracle as that no one broke their neck walking home."

Alexandra smiled, "Mom got me my own glass pipe and weed our last Christmas together. I know that's terrible, but I was just so happy she was home with me, I didn't care. I hate to think what she had to do to get it. Thinking back, I'm surprised her pimp wasn't making sure she was out working."

Darren wrapped both arms around her, held her tight, "You'll never live like that again – I promise."

"I know," she said, her arms wrapped tight around his waist, "Best Christmas gift you ever had – as a kid – what was it?"  
"A pair of work boots," Darren said, "my own – I'd always had hand-me-down's from the older men in the family. The set I got wasn't great, looking back, but they were new, they were just mine – and I needed them. I thought I looked like a real man I guess."

They started out of the house, Darren locked the door behind them.

"You know," Alexandra said, as they walked back to the car, "We should do something nice for Elena and Damon – I just don't know what."  
Darren nodded, "I've been thinking about that – I can't think of anything either."

He opened her door for her, she got in, and he closed it, and walked around to the driver's side. She smiled to herself. That was the kind of thing he did – opened doors for her – for women, elderly men and women, and without thinking about it. It was innate somehow.

He got into the car, and backed out into the street.

"You know," Alexandra said, reaching over and putting her hand on his shoulder, "my best Christmas ever – as an adult – and this tops anything as a kid – Last christmas – our first Christmas with us living together – we put up that tree, went a little crazy decorating your – our – apartment, we hosted that crazy party, and then we had that dinner on Christmas eve . . . and the Christmas before that – we'd only been dating a few months, and you'd told me what you really were – and I was struggling with it – and we were out down town – and there was that car accident. You ripped the door clear off that car and got both those people out, knowing that the car was on fire. You put yourself at risk, risked exposure – and saved those people – that's when I knew who and what you really were, no matter what label people put on it – that was the day I knew I was 100% in love with you, and I'd stay with you, follow you – no matter what."

Darren reached up, took her hand squeezed it, "definitely my best Christmases too – and this one – is going to be just as spectacular. We're here with good friends, and the possibilities for us are limitless."

~~~OFANV~~~

Elena sat at the end of the sofa, her legs across Damon's lap. She had her tablet on, and she was sort of watching the football game that Damon was engrossed in.

"I texted Darren, told him we were running low on beer," Elena said.

Damon nodded, "Are we . . . I guess we do go through a lot more than we usually do lately . . . he say anything about the house?"

"Nothing," Elena said, "Which I'm going to guess means everything is fine. Alexandra offered to cook tonight, they're making a quick run through the market, and she wants to catch the Giants game this afternoon, so they're hurrying."  
Damon rubbed his hand up and down Elena's calf, glanced back at her, "Anything interesting?"

"I did a key word search on Craig's list and some of the other posting sites – no reach outs. There's a couple comments on a web page about our little murder spree here locally, but most of the people on this board are humans who really just hope we exist."

Damon smirked, "bring on the hunters, great."

"Yep," Elena said, "No clubbing, snatch, eat and erase party nights for a while."

Damon shrugged, "I'm content to bag it for months if we have to. Besides, there are plenty of assholes who just set themselves up so easily – in all kinds of places that are usually hunter free – or places they don't look."

"Very true – and Alex seems to be finding that opportunity easy to manage," Elena said.

Damon laughed, "Hhhhmmm . . . is it possible - we might have a quiet, uneventful idyllic life for a while?"  
Elena laughed, "Imagine that . . ."

~~~OFANV~~~

They came home – Damon and Elena's home. Alexandra had picked up a roast that she could fix pot roast style. She mixed the seasonings, rubbed it into the exterior, bagged it, and put it in a roasting pan and put it in the oven, and set it to cook low and slow. It would be ready around 6-ish tonight.

After that, she threw together a spinach dip, cut up a baquet into small slices, laid it out on the coffee table, and brought in fresh beers. It was a nice quiet afternoon – well, a nice afternoon, but perhaps not quiet, with all the yelling at the TV. It was football after all.

As Dinner drew near, Alexandra slipped away, cut up the vegetables she'd chosen, tossed them in olive oil, and set them under the broiler to cook. Then they'd browned just enough, she drizzled a red wine vinaigrette over them, and tossed the whole mix in a bowel. She had rolls, a green salad, the mixed vegetables and the pot roast. Damon pulled out two bottles of red wine, decanting them about half an hour before dinner.

Just before they were about to sit down, Damon's cell phone went off. Damon glanced at the screen, it was Nigel.

"Nigel," Damon said, answering the phone, "I'm glad you called."  
"Aye well, I though perhaps we should meet and discuss this issue, under different circumstances."

"Go on," Damon said.

"Tomorrow evening, say 6:00, Rockefeller square," Nigel said.

"Nice and public, out in the open venue," Damon said, "I'm in. Who are you brining?"

"I travel alone," Nigel said, "One less person to bugger it up."

"Well, I don't travel alone," Damon said, "My wife Elena will be joining us."

"Fair enough," Nigel said, "Northwest corner, there is a bar there with decent beer, we could grab a pint."

"We'll be there at six," Damon said.

He got off the phone, and everyone was quiet.

"This is the guy from the night club – the one that you and Alex met?" Darren said, "I'm going."  
"We're all going," Elena said, "but maybe we should spread out a little, keep an eye on things."

Damon started to fill wine glasses, and Alexandra started to carve into the roast. It was nice and tender, juicy, evenly cooked rare all the way through. She was cooking for vampires after all. This was just a family meal, and families discussed problems over dinner.

Plates were passed around, the side dishes were passed around.

"We'll go early, scope the place out," Darren said, "I can set up an app on your cell phones to be listening in, and he won't know it."

"Like go in wired?" Damon asked, "Please, this guy just wants to get a handle on things."

"We've got all this conflicting information – he could be our ripper," Darren said, "Alex and I will be listening in, nearby, so we can watch who comes and goes."  
Alexandra nodded, "UH . . . so I know what the hunter we ran into in Seattle looked like – but it's winter, everyone has on big bulky coats."

"You knew it when Nigel was stalking that girl – you'll pick it up when a hunter is stalking someone," Darren said, "It's mostly just watching behavior. Who looks like he's looking for someone, looking for trouble? You did that as a human."

Everyone was quiet for a few minutes.

"I refuse to let this stuff control our lives," Elena said, "No matter how this rolls out, we'll handle it. If we play it safe – we won't have any problems. There could be 50 hunters in this city, and as long as we're not leaving a trail of bodies, they won't find us. We've had vampires get stupid in our cities and towns before, and we didn't get targeted if we didn't do anything to attract attention. We have blood bags, we'll be fine."

She bit into the pot roast, tasted, chewed, "Alex, this is amazing."

~~~OFANV~~~

Alexandra picked up the wig early in the day, picking one out that fit, and would look realistic was apparently a fair amount of work. She chose blond, because she could pull it off with her skin tone. She got a pair of glasses that were actually frames with plain lenses. It was an accessory, that was all. She dressed conservatively, boot cut jeans, sneakers, a dark leather jacket, scarf and gloves. Unless Nigel was looking close, or someone else who knew her face, they probably wouldn't spot her. The wavy hair covered the sides of her face well.

Darren had braided his hair into a tail, pulled on a slouchy watch cap, covering most of his hair. He wore a bulkier dark jacket, left off the earrings and necklace he normally wore.

They left the house first. Darren had been at the electronics store that morning. He'd gotten some ear pieces that fit just inside the ear canal, and they were flesh colored so they weren't as obvious. This way, he could hear what was going on around Damon and Elena.

They chose a table in the middle of the bar, so they could watch the back door and front door, while facing each other.

They sat at the bar, shed their coats, and settled in. They were here two hours early, and they'd nibble their way through an appetizer, slowly sip beers, so they weren't out of place.

They sat and watched Damon and Elena come in, didn't acknowledge them, though they could hear them. So far, everything seemed clear. A few minutes later, Nigel came in, looking around, and sat down next to Damon. Damon introduced Elena, and they ordered some drinks.

"So how do you propose to catch this buggering fool," Nigel asked.

Damon snorted, "I have no idea . . . to be honest, after what Roger told me, my money was on Vlad, and they warned me off, said I should let it go, let nature take its course, that kind of thing – and I was ok with that, but when we saw you, I thought you were Vlad, I figured it might be a good time to tell you – if you were Vlad, to pull your head out of your ass."

"I know a witch," Nigel said, "She might be able to come up with some kind of spell."

Damon sighed, glanced over at Elena. She just raised her eyebrow.

"What's this witch going to want?" Damon asked.

"I'll find out," he said, "you think we can ignore this? Hide while the hunters come looking for our blood?"  
"I think I can be discreet," Damon said, "Not do anything to draw the Hunters attention to myself."

Nigel snorted, "Only good hunter I know is a dead hunter."  
Darren and Alexandra were listening in, and watching the room. It was Darren that spotted someone. Darren was watching the back door. The man came in, wearing a long heavy coast like everyone else, but there was something stiff in his sleeve.

"I got a guy with something stiff in his sleeve, pausing at the hallway leading to the back," Darren said, I'm gonna get a little closer."  
Damon's posture changed, stiffer, straighter. Elena slid off her bar stool, "I'm gonna head towards the restroom, I'll be back."

Alexandra moved to the edge of the booth, just watching, and waiting.

Darren lumbered back, like he'd had little too much to drink and was unsteady on his feet. He stumbled into the guy, his hand brushing the guys arm. The guy swore at him, and Darren staggered past, mumbling some apology. Then, so fast, that Alexandra wouldn't have been able to catch it if she hadn't been looking right them, Darren spun around, grabbed the guy around the neck and chest, and blurred back down the hall. Alexandra's eyes scanned the room, looking for someone, anyone who might have seen them. Nothing . . . or if they did, they didn't care.

She could hear Darren slam the guy up against wall, and compelled him to tell him why he was there, why he was armed.

He was there to meet a buddy of his, and he always carried his gun. He wasn't there to attack anyone that night.

Darren compelled him to forget everything and go back in.

Alexandra could hear Elena sigh in relief, and she went into the ladies room for just a moment, and then back out. Darren waited another minute, then went inside, and took his seat across from Alexandra.

"Jesus . . . what if he'd been . . . well – you know . . .what would you do?" Alexandra asked him quietly.

"Compel him, send him to another city if he was human. If he wasn't, then Elena and I would have had to break a few bones, incapacitate him, and figure something out. I've heard we can't actually compel them or kill them, which sucks."

~~~OFANV~~~

Damon sighed, "So tell me more about this witch friend of yours . . ."

Nigel grunted, "I wouldn't say she was my friend – but I'd say she'll do business with us – she'll ask for something she can't get, ask us to play thief or something for her."

Damon snorted, "Let's see what she thinks she can accomplish first. I might know someone who's good at getting things."

"I'll contact her," Nigel said.

"How do you know this witch, anyhow?" Damon asked.

"Not my first time in New York," Nigel said, "We done business together in the past. She's not fond of us, but she's not interested in getting rid of us either."

He finished his beer, "I'm off – nice to be meeting you Mrs. Salvatore."

Elena nodded, "Nice to meet you."

Nigel and Damon shook hands, and then Nigel left. Damon and Elena stayed at the bar for a few minutes.

"OK, we meet up at the sports bar," Damon announced, "see you guys there."

Darren and Alexandra watched them go, and they hung back for a few minutes, and then they left, catching a separate cab.

Alexandra pulled the blonde wig off once she was in the cab, pulled the pins from her hair, fluffed it out, and sighed deeply.

"Holy crap, that was intense," Alexandra said quietly, as she folded the wig and set it into her bag, along with the glasses.

"We had no way of knowing if Nigel was setting us up, we know we can't trust Richard," Darren said, "Now the questions is, can we trust his witch?"

~~~OFANV~~~

_Their sports bar_, that was how Elena thought of it. It was a few blocks from their home. They knew the wait staff, they knew the bar tenders, they were comfortable there. They took a table in the back corner, where they had a good view of a couple TV screens, and it wasn't in the main pathway through the bar.

"Just the two of you tonight?" the waitress asked.

"We have two more friends coming," Elena said, "Can we order a round of skins, and I'll take a hard cidar, and he'll want his bourbon."

The waitress smiled, "Will do."

Elena scooted her chair closer to Damon's, and he draped his arm around her shoulders.

"Do we want to pursue this?" Elena asked him.

Damon sighed, "I'd be inclined to go with Richard's original suggestion – let nature take its course, be discreet for a while. The problem is Richard lied to us, and warned us away from pursuing it. That just makes me a little too suspicious."

"We have to figure out who's doing the bodies now," Elena said, "That will solve most of this."

Darren and Alexandra walked in. Alexandra had pulled off the blond wig and fake glasses.

"She's hotter as a redhead," Damon announced, "Cute as a Blonde, but hotter as a redhead."

Elena laughed, and leaned forward, "I think it made a great disguise. I never would have recognized you if I wasn't looking right at your face."  
The drinks arrived, Darren and Alexandra ordered a round for them, and Elena caught them up on what they'd talked about so far.

"There is one way we can find out who's been at the body dumps. I can hack the cell towers, track what numbers have been around the dumps, and match it all up. But I need more computing power than my lap top has – I'll need to bust out some of my other machines, can I use one of your other guest rooms?"

"Pick a room brother," Damon said, "what if our copycat isn't carrying a cell phone?"  
"Then we got nothing," Darren said, "and we go back to pounding pavement and hoping that witch can actually help."

~~~OFANV~~~

**Again, I'd love to know what you think, what you think could be added, what you want to see less of, or more off. I take those suggestions and run with them. Last time, someone asked for more drama – so I am working that in a little more. So please, review away! I look forward to them!**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 old friends and newbie vamps

**As always – TVD theme, characters etc. belong to the CW, Warner brothers and surely half a dozen other people. Think of fanfic as a tribute to your work.**

**For the readers who follow this story, I must say I wish I could have churned out 10 more intensely wonderful chapters for you, but life being what it is . . . it didn't happen. I pulled back muscles, family stuff came up, and my muse and imagination basically just crapped out and disappeared. Of course now that nursing school is starting back up on the Monday the 6****th ****January, my muse has suddenly returned. I hope you like what it turns out in the weeks to come, and I hope it lets me get my studying done. **

**Enjoy the read, send me comments and reviews!**

~~OFANV~~

Damon liked to think he was pretty adept at most things. Over his 200 years he'd had time to acquire a lot of skills. He'd could remodel a house, and do most basic house repairs. He could work on his cars – even the electric ones that were so popular now in the 2040's. Using computer's had come easy to him. Bringing one home, turning it on, picking up an internet signal – again easy.

But what his friend Darren was doing right now was totally beyond Damon. Damon wasn't sure he wanted to know. He, Damon, might be the dangerous devious one – but Darren was brilliant with things and made connections with some things Damon couldn't. Damon wasn't sure if it was just because Darren was little bit crazy, or if he just had the techy gene that some people had and some people didn't.

They'd moved the bedroom around, set up the folding tables that Darren had stashed along with the other stuff he and Alexandra brought from Seattle – which wasn't much. It was all Darren's computer stuff, her pots and pans and cooking utensils, a few knick knacks and cloths. It all fit in Darren's SUV, with room to spare.

Darren's computer stuff was all in sealed containers, kept them safe from moisture and dust, and Darren unpacked it, set it out, now they were just running the fiber optic lines between them.

"I thought wireless was like the way to go," Damon said, "convenience and all that."

"I need processing power and working memory," Darren replied, "If I linked these wirelessly, I'd lose half of what I get out of them if they are actually linked with fiber optic line."

"You're specialty," Damon replied, "I'll take your word for it . . . but which line do I use?"

Darren turned around, grinning. Alexandra didn't get this part either.

"Just lay them out on the bed – like next to like, that will make it easier for me when I daisy chain them," Darren replied.

Damon sighed, "_Oooo-Kaaayy_," Damon replied, dragging out the word, "glad one of speaks computer nerd."

He started to pull bundled lines out, and laid them out, trying to organized them based on how they looked. Most of it he could match up. What he couldn't – there was a 'who the hell knows' pile.

"You're not exactly poor, couldn't you just buy some big huge super computer?" Damon asked him.

"What do you think these components are?" Darren asked him, gesturing to the stacks of plastic encased boxes, "you don't want to know how much money is actually sitting here."

Damon smirked, "Did you buy them or . . ."

Darren laughed, "These I bought. It's not worth stealing them. The heist would take too many people, cost –benefit, it just doesn't pencil out. Besides, I'm the good guy now."

Damon sighed wistfully, "Yeah, I get that. Believe me, I get that."

It took a few hours to get it set up, but then Darren was up and running.

Damon stood back, watched his friend disappear into a whole different world.

~~OFANV~~

Alexandra was carrying laundry up from the utility a room, and she paused at the top of the steps, seeing Damon come out of the room.

"Mind boggling isn't it," Alexandra said, "I thought I was pretty good with computers until I met him."

"I have to come up with a new nick name for him after that!" Damon said, shaking his head, "it's like that mad scientist- techy style - 2.0 in there!"

"That is why we had a two bedroom apartment," Alexandra said, "imagine sleeping in the same room with all that."

Damon smirked, and did that suggestive gesture with his eyebrow, "Not what Elena and I use our bedroom for."

"Exactly," Alexandra replied, "He'll be in there for a few hours – maybe all day. You might as well settle in for the day or find something else to do. He might as well be on another planet."

~~OFANV~~

It started to snow. Damon and Elena were taking the day to enjoy the sights and sounds of New York City during the holiday season. They'd dressed warmly, heavier jeans, warm coats, scarves, hats and gloves. They'd taken a cab downtown, getting out in the shopping district.

Elena laughed a little, looked up at the sky, closed her eyes for a moment and just reveled in the feel of the snowflakes hitting her face.

Damon watched her, smiling. Thirty some years later, it was still these simple things that got to him. He laughed with her, and then pulled her close, and kissed her deeply, right there in the middle of a busy New York City sidewalk. She kissed him back, snaking her arm around her neck. It was these moments that made their lives worth living. The heightened senses, reveling in the moment, just like now, the intense sensation of how her lips felt against his, her fingers, stroking up the back of his neck into his hair . . .

"Get a room!" Someone said, brushing by them.

The kiss broke, both of them laughing a little.

"So Mrs. Salvatore, where do we want to go?" he asked.

Elena smiled, "Nowhere. I am right where I want to be."  
She brushed her lips across his, but it was a quick gentle kiss, "but since we're here . . ."

She enmeshed her fingers with his, and they walked into a department store.

It was busy – even though it was a weekday, all the holiday shoppers were busily sorting through racks and poring through items on display tables. There was an excitement in the air – for most people. Some of the shoppers looked pissed, but most looked like they were nursing along some frantic but pleasurable high. That's what it seemed like to Damon – that's what he thought it must be like for a human. For him, for a vampire, he likened the department store to a buffet. His heightened senses could pick up thousands of scents, and most of them were very enticing. He breathed deeply, letting his mind conjure up an idea of what some of them might taste like.

He heard Elena take a deep breath, and he wondered if she was thinking about the items on the racks and tables, or what some of the warm fresh blood coursing through so many veins might taste like. They wandered through the store, looking at whatever caught her eye or his, occasionally both of them caught a scent, and they exchanged those knowing glances. Back out on the street again, they walked along the sidewalk, stopped at a vender who was selling roasted nuts, the strong rich scent drawing them in. The picked up coffee as well, and then made their way into the park, found a bench, and sat down.

"I love days like this," Elena said, sipping her coffee.

"It beats . . . hell, a lot of things," Damon replied, thinking of some of the holidays he had before Elena. When he'd been a child, and his mother had was alive, those were happy moments he'd thought were lost to him forever. For 147 years his holidays had been spent drinking himself into oblivion usually, liquor, blood or both.

She rested her head on his shoulder, slid her hand into his again.

"If we have to move – to stay safe – we'll do it. I know we haven't been here long, but . . ."

"Hey," Damon said, dropping her hand and putting his arm around her shoulders, "We'll be fine – and if it gets too dangerous, we'll leave. We can do just what Richard said – leave it alone. We don't do the things that attracts attention – usually. We've been up against a lot worse and came out just fine."

Elena nodded, "We went through hell though."  
"It is our life," Damon said, trying to sound lighthearted, "Come on – we'd get bored if it was smooth sailing all the time."

She gave a short laugh, "We've had some long patches of peace and quiet."

Damon plucked a warm cashew out of the little bag, popped it in his mouth, "Remember our first year in Texas?"

Elena smiled. They'd stayed long enough in Mystic falls that it was time to leave. People who were not in the know – and surprisingly, there were a lot – would start to notice soon that they did not age. They hadn't been able to decide where to move, there were so many choices. So they'd spread out a map of the country, and tossed a coin in the air, where it landed was where they'd move.

They'd ended up in Texas. They'd moved in the early spring, and the weather was nice, temperate. They knew it would get hot in the summer. It got hot in mystic falls in the summer. By august, they were cracking jokes about having moved to hell. It hit 117 degree's one day. They'd rented a house, and every time they turned around something was breaking. A pipe broke, flooding the basement. Some neighborhood kids playing baseball broke a window. Then the air conditioning went out.

Their landlord was decent, and he fixed things quickly, or paid them when Damon just did it. But the air conditioning had taken days to get fixed. Damon finally announced that it wasn't their time to roast in hell, and they checked into a hotel.

Out of boredom, they'd ended up doing occasional bar tender shift at a bar and grill that become one of their favorite haunts. The season's turned, and they made jokes about decorating a cactus instead of a Christmas tree. The temperature had dropped, and then the heat failed. Damon finally lost it and announced that they were moving. He compelled the landlord to let them out of their lease.

The next house didn't have any problems. They'd spent six years there. It was the easiest six years of their life.

"We had fun in Texas," Elena said, "We've had fun every place we've been."

"Some more than others," Damon commented.

Elena looked over at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Washington DC kind of sucked," Damon said, "Which was why we only lived there two years."

Elena groaned, "God what a nightmare – everyone was perpetually pissed off."

"New Years Eve, our 2nd year in Seattle," Damon said, "We were at that party at the top of the space needle, something went wrong with the fireworks show, and nothing happened for like 20 minutes, then they all went off at once."

"I want to go back to Cairo," Elena said, "Someday – get in on some archeological dig."

Damon shrugged, "I'd say as soon as it calms down, but let's face it, it never calms down – and we do have this handy little gift called immortality . . ."

"Our next move maybe," Elena said, "Or the one after that . . . I'd have to read up on my Egyptian history, and the politics."

"And we'd have to learn the language," Damon added, "isn't there like a tons of different dialects of the same language over there?"

Elena shrugged, "I have no idea actually – think of the libraries there – all the historical documents . . ."

Damon gave her an excited mock grin, "We could compete for blood with those man-eating beetles in those mummy horror movies!"

Elena laughed, "I think that was totally faked."

Damon raised an eyebrow, "They said that about vampires too. . ."

~~OFANV~~

Alexandra did her and Darren's laundry, then dove into some housekeeping – just to stay busy. There wasn't much to do, Elena and Damon kept their house pretty clean and organized. She'd wiped down all the surfaces in the kitchen with bleach wipes, and she'd wiped down the entire interior of the fridge, the freezer, and cleaned the two convection ovens.

She'd have hopped on line to check her email and social media pages, but she didn't want to take any bandwidth from Darren right now, so instead, she'd settle back down with a book on her tablet. She was just starting to think about what she might make for dinner when Darren finally emerged from the bedroom that became his new temporary office.

His hair was tied back at the base of his neck, and he had that weary look on his face that told her it had been a frustrating day.

He came down the steps, leaned over and brushed a kiss across her forehead.

"I'm gonna get a bag – want one?"

She sighed, "Yeah . . . I haven't had one today . . . I probably should."

He disappeared down stairs to the basement, and came back with two bags.

He handed one to her, and sank down on the sofa next to her. She had her shoes off, her legs up on the sofa, so when he sat down, he slid closer, pulling her legs across his lap. He'd pulled the plug off the bag with his teeth, spit it out into his hand, and took a long deep drink.

She sipped hers, watching him. It still amazed her that she liked the taste. It was different now – because she as a vampire. Before when she was human, if she bit her lip or tongue hard enough, she'd notice the coppery taste. Darren's blood – when she drank from him (and he really did seem to enjoy it when she did), his blood had tasted sweet. It freaked her out at first, and she only did it because she needed too – the first time she'd been hurt, broke her arm after falling down a set of stairs. It had been a freak accident. The other times, later in their relationship, it was usually because Darren drank a little too much when he drank from her and the sex was always so much more intense when he drank from her during sex. Soon, she'd found she actually like the taste of Darren's blood – it was different somehow. Richer, sweeter, instantly addictive . . .

Now . . . blood – human blood – didn't have that same coppery taste. It was there, but it was different somehow. It was richer somehow and sweet, but not like Darren's blood.

She watched Darren now, and she knew he was working through something in his head. She waited a while, watching, until he finished the bag, and set it aside.

"So what's got you so pensive," Alexandra said, "I know that look."

"Richard's phone is consistently in the area," Darren said, "but so is someone else's. He's human, I think. He runs an underground fetish nightclub."

Alexandra nodded, "Well, I didn't figure whoever it was would be exactly normal."

Darren bent his arm, rested it on the back of the sofa, and leaned his head on his hand, and watched Alexandra, "I'm not 100% sure he is human though."

Alexandra ran a hand through her hair, "OK . . . "

"The fetish club is for people who do role playing – as vampires. Our copycat might be a human pretending to be a vampire," Darren told her, "Or a vampire, pretending to be a human who is pretending to be a vampire."

Alexandra blinked, "OH . . . damn . . . that's . . . I don't know if that's good or bad."

"Neither do I," Darren said, "The pisser is – we could just ignore it – except that we know Richard is laying the murders at the feet of another vampire – and we don't know why – so we don't know if he'll stop there."

"What would happen if he started turning a bunch of them – people at this fetish club? I've met people that get into that kind of role playing thing – some of them are a little crazy – it's like they start to really believe it."

"Yeah," Darren said, "I know . . . so we're up against a much older vampire – and god knows what kind of delusional humans . . . or it could just be a brand new vampire."

"Which would be why we were warned off," Alexandra said, "He could be protecting someone who's new – just like you protect me."

"Yeah," Darren said, "I know. The whole situation is screwed, and Damon is kind-of friends with Richard."

Alexandra snorted, "I wouldn't call it friends – acquaintances maybe – Richard hadn't been here before, I could tell by the way he looked around, he didn't just walk in, help himself to a drink and sit down – if he'd been here, he'd know that was the routine."

"Either way – this gets worse and worse. Newbie vampire that's not discreet, or a human who's a wanna-be – both attract attention, and add to that Richard's arrogance about the whole thing . . . that's a sure fire way to attract a hunter."  
"If we stick to bags- maybe the hunter never knows we exist," Alexandra said, "why bother with us if we're not killing people."

"Because they're like racists – they just hate because they think they should," Darren said, "and we have to worry about Richard selling us out. I've met his type before."

Alexandra nodded, "Just like some rich frat boy, trust fund brat."

"Yep," Damon said, "It all boils down to more of _'we just don't know'_."

Alexandra drew in a deep breath "I should be scared shitless right now, shouldn't I?"  
Darren sighed. He didn't want to lie to her, he wanted to protect her. This whole mess had been wearing on him since it started, the ramifications of what could happen wearing him down, creating horrible images in his head. Hunters tracking them. He'd dodged them dozens of times. He was much better at covering his tracks now that he had been when he was . . . . younger . . . but Alexandra was so new at this. She had good instincts for when something was off – she'd been smart about that one kill she'd pulled off when she was with Elena. But none of that changed the fact that she as a very young, very new vampire – still dealing with the super heightened senses that were so useful and yet so distracting at the same time.

He stroked his fingers along her face, from her temple, down to cup her jawline, "We can't take it lightly."

She nodded slight, and then crawled into his lap, straddling him, and looped her arms around his neck.

"It's a whole new set of rules now. We'll watch our asses, figure out how to deal with this. Well make it work."

He ran his hands up her back, brushed his lips across hers, "Best we can do really."

She nodded, "You know – I don't know Vlad – but this is really not cool that Richard is laying this at his feet . . . if nothing else, we gotta put a stop to that crap. I remember what it was like when people assumed the worst of me – because of my mother, and no one had my back. It's not right."

Darren smiled, shaking his head, and toyed with a tendril of hair.

"I love you," he said, "This kinda thing . . . is so you."

She rolled her eyes, "yeah yeah yeah . . . so I was gonna try to figure out what to make for dinner, but now I am seriously jones-ing for tamales again – lets go back to that Mexican neighborhood, have dinner, a couple of beers, and get away from this for a few hours."

~~OFANV~~

She changed into a pair of old faded jeans, knee high flat heeled boots, and a V-neck T. She had her leather coat with the warm liner, a pair of gloves and a scarf. Darren had his black biker style boots under boot cut jeans, a t-shirt and one of his black leather biker style jackets, gloves and a scarf, and they took off.

Tonight, they picked a restaurant with a bar, and just took a table in the bar. Alexandra ordered two chicken tamale's and rice, Darren ordered burrito's, and they started with a couple of beers.

"God I love tamales," Alexandra said, cutting into hers with the side of her fork, and scooping up a piece, "The lady who worked in my stepfathers kitchen made them all the time – I'd come home from school and she'd have a little one fixed for me – pure heaven. Sometimes it was just cheese, or vegetables inside, hell she could have served me rat and made it taste good."

Darren laughed, "My grandmother – amazing cook – she could make anything taste good. She'd have empanada's for us when we left for work in the morning – some kind of meat, lots of whatever vegetable for filler mixed in, simmered down. Wrap it up in a cloth to keep it somewhat clean and we were ready to go. Very different from what we see today."

"I bet," Alexandra said, "I told you about when I could pick up work at the docks, slinging fish – well, sometimes there would be fish all mangled – edible, but not pretty – and it would be work to clean them. So those we could get for free – and sometimes we could just get a fish for whatever the hell reason. I'd bring them home, double bag them, throw them in the fridge, and I'd have to shower and race off to school, but that night I'd clean it all up, and we'd get some neighbors together, everybody brought something – we ate well. Fresh food is like gold when you're poor and live in a city. One of my neighbors was a stock boy at a vegetable market – so he'd bring home stuff that was going to spoil if they held onto it for another day – roasted up, tasted wonderful. This one day – I put the word out that I had managed to get a hold of some seafood, two crabs with busted shells, and some clams – so when I got home, the neighbors had the vegetables, we went to work cleaning chopping and cooking – someone else came up with rice, and we had like four fry pans going, someone's wok and an electric fryer. Did the fish and veggies stir-fry style with some kind of seasoning – god only knows what – it was so damn good. I saved some for mom, but her pimp ate it."

"Asshole," Darren said.

"Yeah, he definitely was," Alexandra said, "that as the last big multi-family meal we did – at least that I was part of. Mom owed her pimp and her dealer, so she sold me – and you know the rest," Alexandra said, "I miss those meals – it was the whole routine with so many people involved, seeing people waiting with their plates, everyone sitting where ever they could sit – even on the floor, and diving in. We did something like that on New Year's Eve once – I knew I'd be able to score something from the docs. I think someone marinated it all in beer for half the day, I really don't know, but it was amazing."

"We could probably find a way to recreate a lot of that," Darren said, smiling at the mental picture she created for him, "It won't be quite the same, but close."

She nodded, "I know, but that's half the fun I think."

He sipped his beer, swallowed, and then said "One New Year's Eve – we roasted a pig. The pig got kicked by a steer – we knew it was going die, so we strung him up, drained him, and did the slow roast over a pit of coals overnight thing. We started eating about midday on New Year's Eve – fed a lot of people off that pig, but people came with stuff to share too. I remember coming home from the farm I'd been working on, and I was a mile out, and with the drift of the wind, I could smell that thing roasting, it was amazing. My father was piss drunk already of course, and getting mean and nasty, but one of my uncles walked him off somewhere so he could get even more drunk and pass out."

"Funny – how that works – there's always one in every family or every group," Alexandra said, and she picked up her beer, "Yet you and I – and so many other people somehow find a way to enjoy the good memories, accept the bad – and somehow make it all work."

He tapped the neck of his beer to hers, "That, _Querrida_, is why I love you."

~~OFANV~~

**As always, I'd love to know what you think. Getting those emails on my phone in the middle of the day where I find out someone was impressed enough to review makes my day. Some of those got me through some crappy days the last few months.**


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